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#stranger things season 4 theory

paceypeternathanslawyer · 2 years

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I just read this article that talks about a Sadie Sink interview. Of course Sadie couldn’t talk about why Max is levitating (I don’t know why people waste their breaths by asking some questions. Now if it were Noah that would be different cause he might spill beans he shouldn’t lol)

But this article got me to thinking about my theory of why Max is levitating.

1. We know from the Duffers that looking at the Creel clock is a “dangerous thing” and we also know from the trailer that Max looks at the clock. The Duffers also spilled all of this while doing commentary on the shot of Max levitating. Their exact words were “she shouldn’t have looked at the clock”

2. We also know that Victor Creel who was the owner of the Creel clock was involved in a murder case in the 1950s where he murdered his family.

All of this has led me to believe that maybe looking at the clock leads to people being possessed by the new S4 monster Vecna. Like maybe Vecna made Victor Creel kill his family? Maybe powers are involved in this possession? Which leads to the question... if this is true and Max is possessed by Vecna in S4... how is this gonna all play out? Hopefully she will get out of this entirely unscathed.

BTW This might not be relevant at all but it is interesting that Vecna is also seen levitating in the S4 trailer...

#stranger things #stranger things season 4 #stranger things season 4 theory #stranger things theory #max mayfield #sadie sink #the stranger six #the party #netflix

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wheelerssecret · 1 year

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WHY DON'T I SEE ANYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS???????????

[electricity flickering]

LIKE WTF?????

byler is SO ENDGAME

flickergate is SO REAL

#flickergate #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #byler is canon #stranger things #byler endgame #byler is endgame #byler nation #byler season 4 #mike wheeler i know what you are #byler is requited #byler s4 #byler s5 #byler theory

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novalunosiss · 2 years

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Okay but-

Tell me I’m (maybe) onto something here???

Please note: the gifs of Steve and Nancy do not belong to me! (clearly) They belong to @zendayacolemann. I would’ve made them myself (like the gifs of El and Mike) but I couldn’t find any videos of that specific scene so I borrowed these ones. Also sorry for the bad quality ones I made, I am (again, clearly) an amateur but hopefully it gets the point across just as well :)

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sapphicslut777 · 1 month

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i want to see lucas and el have a plot together in season 5!! i want more about the inner-workings of their relationship. i think that those two have had tension since season 1.

after all, lucas was the first one to suggest that “maybe el is the monster”. i truly believe that moment (and her subsequently throwing lucas across the junkyard) is what causes her spiral with *someone* or *something* having to be the monster in the story.

plenty of people point out el’s [someone has to be the monster] complex. brenner, henry, mike… i wonder what kind of closure that part of the narrative will receive (will the answer be someone? no one? nothing?).

i want to see el and lucas having a friendship, and bonding over max (and potentially the loss of the rest of the friend group)… i have a feeling this season is going to be pretty bleak/harrowing all of the way through, from the beginning. i’m scared i’m going to have to mourn the gang splitting up.

but i hope that we ultimately get to see some new dynamics with existing characters, rather than them introducing anymore new characters for season 5

#stranger things #stranger things 5 #stranger things season 5 #stranger things 5 theory #stranger things theory #into the ether #mine #st s5 #stranger things 1 #stranger things spoilers #lucas sinclair #el #eleven #el hopper #jane hopper #jane ives #stranger things 4 #stranger things 3 #max mayfield

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robin-buck1ey · 2 years

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People will say Nancy wheeler is stuck up and a priss, but that’s because the last time she allowed herself to have fun, and be a teen, her best friend was killed. Nancy doesn’t let herself relax, or act her age, or just do normal teen things, because that’s exactly how she lost Barb. Now she constantly feels guilty and blames her self for being a young girl trying to fit in.

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aurorabyler · 2 years

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Flashbacks in Stranger Things: When, Why, and How They Are Used (Long Analysis)

sit back and relax everyone. this is gonna be my longest post yet.

disclaimer before anyone proceeds--i have not tagged this post with any relationships other than byler so if you do not like this pairing please just scroll past this post! i never cross tag because i truly want a safe fandom space for everyone. this is just my analysis of the show and my own brainrot.

I’ve thought about the usage of flashbacks in Stranger Things a lot over the past few weeks. I saw a post by user @girlskth on Twitter (HUGE shoutout to them for this very eye-opening post, please go check it out their tweet and give them all the love!!), who mentioned the contrast between Max’s scene in Dear Billy (running up that hill → from Vecna), versus El being trapped by the vines in 4x09. First: we need to talk about flashbacks as they have been used throughout film and TV history as a key literary device. Here are some articles that I found that explain why flashbacks can be so important to understanding characters:

This quote is vital:

"Flashbacks are really a function of character, not story…the visual image we’re seeing is what the character is thinking and feeling at that present moment…it illuminates a character’s point of view.”

Flashbacks are never pointlessly placed. There is always an intent behind reverting back to the old material to demonstrate something about the character’s current mindset.

These two scenes are clearly parallels (complete credits to @girlskth for bringing this up), as both Max and El are encountering the same situation–being trapped in Vecna’s lair and hearing a monologue from him. The scenes are not only plot parallels but visual ones.

However, there is one thing lacking in this parallel, and @girlskth brilliantly points out what it is—their emotional connection. Max relies on flashbacks of her happiest memories to free herself from Vecna’s trance and come back to reality. There are MANY flashbacks of her platonic relationships (her friendship with El being the most significant), and her romantic relationship with Lucas, which is ultimately what gives her enough time to run away from Vecna.

Now, going into El’s scene, I as a viewer was EXPECTING that they would show flashbacks of El’s happy memories with Mike during his monologue. This is coming from someone who does not ship these two characters together at all.

I like them as friends, and I was still waiting for them to show us moments from their kiss at the snowball, from Mike giving Eleven the name “El,” from Mike calling her for 353 days in season 2, from Mike saying “No, El, you’re not the monster–you saved me,” from El saying she loves him at the end of season 3…but nothing.

Absolutely no flashbacks were shown apart from the scene of the boys finding El in the woods. This is extremely odd for a couple who has supposedly been the centrepiece of Stranger Things for four seasons, or, in the words of people who ship these characters, have been “built up for four seasons.” But no. Nothing.

This is an INSANE contrast to Max’s Dear Billy scene, which went out of its way to show her history with all of these characters over the 3 seasons her character has been in the show.

The concept of “show, don’t tell,” is critical in understanding this parallel. Take Max’s relationships that are highlighted when she is in Vecna’s trance: these flashbacks all occur because she knows they will give her strength. She is never verbally prompted to think about these memories because she has confidence they will help her fight in her darkest moment. Here’s some more information on show don’t tell and how it is used in media:

If we apply Max's unconcious logic to El’s scene in Vecna’s lair, being able to pull from her happy memories with Mike should have been something that came relatively naturally to her. Except, this didn’t happen. What did happen? El’s memories with Max DID come naturally, and those memories ultimately saved Max’s life.

Zero Flashbacks to Mike/El's Past Seasons' Dynamic

While waiting for volume two, even as someone who likes this pairing platonically, I was excited to see flashbacks to season 1 Mike/Eleven once they reunited at the Nina Project. I’ll always be nostalgic for seasons 1 and 2 and I wanted to see some of their friendship dynamics from those seasons come back. I was literally expecting there to be some sort of “still pretty?” flashback, or some other cut back to season one. Again, I am saying all of this entirely as someone who 100% believes in a byler endgame for this show. I was still very surprised by this, and it is clearly intentional on the writer’s part.

Some would argue that the lack of flashbacks is due to the varying perspectives in Mike’s monologue scene. We see Mike’s, Will’s, El’s, and Jonathan’s POVs switching between each other in this scene. When peeling back the layers, we learned that Mike's monologue utilizes the miscommunication trope in a big way. Let’s analyze:

Mike is under the impression, because of Will, that “these past few months she (El) has been so lost without you…You make her feel like she’s not a mistake at all–like she’s better for being different. And that gives her the courage to fight on.” —Will, 4x09

First and foremost: Mike’s monologue would not have happened without Will’s veiled confession in the van. He believes Will’s feelings are El’s, and it is these feelings that make him think that what he says is what El needs to hear.

Mike is TOLD (not sure if he entirely believes it especially after the final scene in the cabin when El walks away from him, but we’ll have to wait for more scripts to see the truth), that El has been “lost” without him and that she “needs” him to be able to fight.

This is what he is TOLD by Will about El, and this is not true, as NOWHERE during any of El’s scenes at school in California, or once Mike comes to visit, or during her time at the Nina Project, or during her battles with the military + Vecna does El EVER give the impression that she somehow needs Mike in her life to keep fighting, or that he gives her courage. In fact, given all of the parallels El draws between Mike's "what did you do?" and Brenner's "what have you done?" I would say what Mike gives her is the opposite of courage.

El keeps fighting because she has come into herself and she is powerful and strong, not because she needs Mike there to help her. And Mike, prior to Will’s confession, knows this is the truth, as seen by the line in the official script that was cut out from the show:

If El truly needed Mike to “fight on,” as Will implies with his own feelings, I believe that more flashbacks would have been utilized, regardless of the multiple perspectives in the scene, to show how Mike has supposedly helped El “fight” in the past. But none of this was shown BECAUSE El’s battles have always been about her personal arc and growth. In the past seasons, El has never relied on or needed Mike to help her fight–he has been misled because of Will’s veiled confession.

Perhaps the best example of El’s battles being about her own growth is in the 2x09 scene where she closes the gate: you'll see here that all the flashbacks she has during this critical battle have to do with her personal growth and past trauma. The same is true of her fight with the Demogorgon in season 1, of learning from Kali in season 2, of fighting Billy and the Mind Flayer in season 3--her relationship with Mike is not critical to any of these battles. It is her friendships and familial love that motivates her as well as her own coming of age.

The miscommunication about El "needing" Mike to be able to "fight" explains a lot of things, including, at least to an extent why Mike VISIBLY HESITATED when saying “I love you” for the first time in his monologue. There are obviously other reasons to this that have been analyzed by many other people, but I feel this miscommunication is critical.

This is something that has really been annoying me ever since season 4 came out: the whole plotline about Mike not being able to say he loves El should be extremely clear to audiences about what it implies. I love romance and I KNOW that the Duffers can write amazing love stories (Lumax, Jancy, Jopper…).

Lucas and Max never once say they love each other but it is clear to audiences–they SHOW it in their own ways.

True love is shown, not told–especially in media.

That is how the most popular romantic pairings are so believable to audiences. Showing, not telling your love for someone, makes it feel real. And boom: ever since season 3 and ESPECIALLY after season 4, there have been hundreds of thousands of people saying that Mike/El's dynamic seems "off" somehow.

My point here is that if you love someone unconditionally, if you are truly, deeply in love with them, you would not hesitate for a moment to say that you love them, especially if they practically beg you to say it while crying about that very fact. You would also not call them “ridiculous” after they start crying and then you proceed to deflect blame about a situation you caused onto other people.

Love is powerful. To me, it’s one of the most powerful things that exists in this world. And I believe that the writers of this show feel the same way: Love Conquers All. I’ll insert one of my favourite quotes from Avatar: The Last Airbender to display how I feel about this topic:

"You have indeed felt a great loss. But love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us. The air nomads' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside of your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love." -Guru Pathik, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Real, romantic love is never something that should be questioned at critical moments. Let me emphasize: I do not question that Mike platonically loves El. He clearly loves her a great amount as shown by what he has gone through with her over the course of the show, just as he loves Lucas, Dustin, Max, Nancy, etc.

Millie literally said in an interview for ST4 that “Mike is not loving Eleven the way she wants to be loved.” This situation for El is honestly extremely heartbreaking because she truly deserves so much better than what she’s been given. El is one of my favourite characters and I love her dearly, and seeing her suffer because of this relationship as well as the bullying at school hits very close to home for me. She deserves so much happiness and I hope she gets to have endless amounts of it by the end of season 5.

How else have flashbacks been used in Stranger Things?

The article I cited earlier holds true to the Stranger Things writer’s perspective on flashbacks. Remember: "flashbacks are really a function of character, not story…the visual image we’re seeing is what the character is thinking and feeling at that present moment…it illuminates a character’s point of view.” Utilizing flashbacks as a literary device in this manner has been seen multiple times in the show at key character moments.

Will and Joyce

This flashback is key to showing Joyce's relationship with her son and how much she loves him. It holds true to the article in that it SHOWS that while searching for Will, she thinks back to the time they spent together in Castle Byers.

Jonathan and Will

Jonathan's relationship with Will is key to season one and remains one of the most beautiful parts of Stranger Things. This flashback, just like the ones with Max and Joyce, happens naturally. Jonathan associates The Clash with Will and can't help thinking back to their happy memories together once he hears the song play. This simple scene shows the depth of their relationship.

Hopper and Sarah

In my opinion, this is by far the most effective use of flashback Stranger Things has used to date. When I watched season 1 in 2016, this was the scene that made me cry my eyes out. I still think about it to this day as the catalyst that started my long-running love for this show. While trying to revive Will, Hopper is reminded of his daughter Sarah's struggle with cancer which led to her death. This flashback is a perfect representation of Hopper's development.

Hopper's arc in seasons 1 and 2 was one of my favourite things to watch: he starts as someone cold and isolated who drowns himself in drugs and alcohol to cope with his past trauma. Eventually, he learns to love again in all sorts of ways once Joyce comes back into his life. Hopper's drive to find Will and his love for Joyce inadvertently led him to El, and as he says in season 3:

"For so long, I'd been stuck in one place...And then, I left some Eggos out in the woods, and you came into my life. And for the first time in a long time, I started to feel things again." -Hopper's Letter, 3x03

In summary: flashbacks are used with intent and to SHOW the audience a character's internal struggles and thoughts. Stranger Things follows the textbook way to use flashbacks effectively, and has clearly been selective for a reason when it comes to which moments they choose to remind us of, as well as when, how, and why these moments are used. They have juxtaposed two very similar scenes and how the characters have escaped from the series' antagonist, Vecna, using these flashbacks/memories to their advantage. The final battle between El and Vecna was driven by El's love for Max. Mike was under the impression that what he said was what El needed to hear because it was veiled in Will's feelings. While these ideas have been widely discussed, showing how flashbacks have been effectively used throughout the show and comparing them to their usage (or lack thereof) in season 4 gives us excellent insights into El's headspace, as well as what the future holds for these characters. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this analysis so I really hope you enjoyed it! Please give it a reblog if you can and leave your thoughts in the comments. I'd love to know your interpretation :) Thank you so much for reading! <3

#byler #byler endgame #stranger things #stranger things theory #st4 #stranger things season 4 #vecna #running up that hill #mike wheeler #will byers #byler tumblr #mike wheeler x will byers #byler nation #001 #001 stranger things #stranger things meta #byler meta #theory

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stevesbipanic · 2 years

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Trailer for st5 drops, we see lots of epic fight scenes, dramatic scenes, worried looks on the characters faces like any of the other trailers, it's great, were pumped, it's the final season. It all comes to a peak of lots of tiny clips, the screen goes black, that's when we hear it.

"Hello Henderson."

We would lose our collective shit.

#eddie is alive #st5 theory #stranger things #eddie munson #steddie #st4 #stranger things s4 #steve harrington #steveddie #eddie munson stranger things #eddie the freak munson #stranger things season 4 #dustin henderson #dustins dads #st5 #bring eddie back #vampire eddie munson

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willthewise7 · 11 months

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So I’ve seen speculation of why Mike was able to get Will out of his trance, whilst we can see Mike reaching out visibly to Will in the trance too.

The first explanation for this is that Will keeps getting stuck between both sides. He’s there in the real world whilst he’s seeing the Upside Down. It’s like a thin veil between both dimensions. He’s able to be in both at the same time. Therefore, Will can be seen in the real dimension at the same time. So Mike reaches out to Will to try and make sure that he’s okay, and to help him.

So we know Will can be between both dimensions. But why can we see Mike reaching into it?

You can visibly see here in this shot that Mike’s hand is almost shown to be reaching into the Upside Down to grab Will. This directing is purposeful, to convey a message and to hide symbolism. Otherwise, this whole shot could’ve simply been Mike grabbing Will in the real world, with Will awakening from his trance. So they’ve set this shot up on purpose, neat editing.

Ultimately, this could be interpreted as clever symbolism of Mike being the light that reaches Will in dark places. The one that can always save him due to the bond that they both have. With how they’ve shown Will with his love for Mike in Season 4, it makes even more sense. Mike is Will’s light, therefore it makes sense for him to be able to pull him from the dark. Also, notice how his voice also is displayed with this scene too even in the Upside Down trance? Mike’s voice works too. This isn’t the only time that he pulls him out of a trance either.

Mike also snaps Will out of his trance outside of the Palace Arcade, this time just by using his voice. Therefore, a common theme. Mike is capable of bringing Will out of his trances just by touching him or using his voice. The only time this didn’t work is when the Mindflayer was possessing Will on the field. However, later in the season we get another iconic scene showing how Mike is capable of saving Will and getting through to him, even when he’s possessed.

Mike retelling the story of when they first met in Kindergarten and Mike saying that asking him to be his friend was “the best thing I’ve ever done”, broke through to Will. Enabling him to fight back against the Mindflayer temporarily.

It’s also key to note that in this scene when Will taps the chair with morse code to create a message for everyone, it’s the same hand tapping the chair that Mike touched earlier in the season.

So all of these scenes and clues put together show that it’s the love Will has for Mike that pulls him through. Like Will says, Mike makes him feel like “he’s not a mistake at all” and gives him the “courage to fight on”.

So to finally answer this question, I believe they intentionally framed Mike’s hand like that to demonstrate how strong Will’s love for Mike is. So therefore, this is proof of them setting this storyline up from the very beginning. Like David Harbour said, it’ll all make sense when you look back at it.

Finally, Will is also Mike’s light in the dark. This’ll be touched upon in the final season more with Mike, as they did with Will in Season 4. This shot below demonstrates this.

This is a key piece of cinematography for the show. Will is in the light, with Mike in the dark. Foreshadowing that Mike will join the light with him in Season 5. Possibly saving Will from trances again too?

One thing for sure, it’s showing Will in the light, as Mike’s light too. This shot shows that they both need each other, they light each other up in dark times. They encourage each other to fight on. They are both each others light. Both capable of saving each other and pulling each other from the dark.

Overall, therefore, this shot combined with other iconic scenes for the show further confirms Will’s love for Mike. Alongside foreshadowing Mike’s love for Will in Season 5.

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #byler season 4 #byler is endgame #stranger things 5 #byler theory #byler season 2

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novalunosiss · 2 years

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No bc if this theory is actually correct-

Edit: @chandajaan and @krimprim have brought to my attention that the owner of this artwork is @zapalzo! Full credits to them, and apologies for not tagging sooner. I found this picture on Pinterest, and I had no idea the owner even had a tumblr account but it’s still on me as I should’ve researched more thoroughly. Thanks for letting me know! :)

#even down to the bowlcut and flannel shirt #stranger things #stranger things season 4 #will byers #william byers #byler #byler is real #byler is endgame #stranger things theory

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