forever young, forever drunk

got inspired on yesterday's magma hosted by kidovna but i sucked so i took it off there and finished on my own

still thinking about this drawing i made before the catastrophe that was volume 2 and 3 💔

unicorn mike. stay with me now.

just discovered sevenspins and ts is actually so peak. ngl tho this took way longer than i thought it would 😭 but worth

i’ll draw will next, but i want some opinions because at first i thought that mike would really fit as a figure skater. but this is cute too. idk. help

omens and cycles

Steve mentions in The Crawl that Will hasn't had his "goosies" in 18 months, the last time he felt them being the season 4 finale.

However, we see later on that Will feels them when Derek walks by while being watched by Vecna. This suggests that it's merely the hive minds presence that is required, not any particular use of powers.

So...

How can Will live with the Wheelers for 18 months and not once sense the hive mind's presence even though Mr. Whatsit has been paying visits to Holly?

I don't buy that Venca would be avoiding Will and waiting for him to be away. He visits her in the basement, which has apparently been his bedroom for a year and a half, on Halloween. He visits her outside the Wheeler house at breakfast time when everyone is going to be called to the table. He straight up kidnaps her from the house with no indication that he knew or even cared where Will was.

In fact, if Vecna cared at all about being detected by Will, he never would have targeted Holly in the first place. If he only goes after kids with no connection to the Party, he probably succeeds in his plan because they never figure out what's going on.

But, somehow, Vecna manages to pop in on Holly multiple times at home totally undetected, despite Will, who senses the hive mind whether he wants to or not, living in that same house for a year and a half. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's shit like this.

byler: movie is real

I can't believe they dressed mike and will like characters from a movie where they forget their love for each other so it wouldn't affect the plot, and they told us to watch that movie before season 5...

doing it twice is even crazier

I'm convinced the characters fell under Vecna's control at the end of season 4. We were told season 5 would pick up where season 4 left off, and that's exactly what happened. The 18-month timeskip at the beginning of the season isn't real, just like the one in the epilogue. It's a transitional phase from one illusion to another, a break for a change of scenery, so to speak. And I believe that Will was the first to wake up from his trance at the end of the Sorcerer. Here's why I think so.

1. Importance of the memories

When Will was possessed by MF in season 2, it was the happy memories he shared with his loved ones that helped them reach out to him. The same thing happened to Max under Vecna's trance. Happy memories of her friends in duo with Kate Bush, helped her escape the first time.

Furthermore, before season 5 aired, they released VR game in which Vecna haunts Will, who tries to hide from him in his good memories, but Vecna keeps finding him. The other characters in the game managed to drive away Vecna from their mind with happy memories. But Mike has to pull Will out of the trance as he always did. In season 5 Mike can't help him, no one can. He has to save himself and his loved ones. And he finally finds strength in himself and in the happy memories that Vecna tried to take from him and corrupt, and so he breaks free. This interpretation also fits with the Duffers' interview, where they said that scene was never about Mike, but about Will himself. Because he not only accepts himself, but also takes back his agency.

2. Will's weird behavior after the Sorcerer

No need to explain here, given the number of possessed Will theories that were made after vol 2. And indeed, it feels like someone is simply trying to play Will. Perhaps this someone is Henry? And he's not very good at it.

He just physically can't shut up and not call the kids weak or vessels to not be suspicious. Mike realized something was wrong, and perhaps the other characters did too. That's why we get the coming out scene.

Vecna needs something to throw off all suspicion and make everyone trust him, so he uses Will's greatest weakness and secret to gain sympathy. Just look at the floor—it's a chessboard, because he's playing them and they fall for this lie. And that's where the milkshakes come from, because it's Henry speaking, not Will. Will has already escaped, but someone needs to take his place in the play.

Also, if it was Henry all or most of the time, then this moment is probably him clocking homotron 9000.

3. Will's trying to break through the illusion

I think in some scenes we see the real Will trying to reach the characters through the illusion. The first suspicious scene is in Shock Jock, when Will enters Vecna's mind and saves Max. If everyone's in the trance then this scene doesn't make any sense. I could be wrong, but "run" scene was leaked before season 5 aired. It's a low quality video filmed far away but you could hear Will screaming a name that sounds more like "Mike", and someone also says, "Grab them by the throat." So maybe there's another "real" version of that scene from Will's POV. There's also the moment where the soldier calls Mike by name in the final episode. And then there's that cursed tower scene, which was leaked on Twitter a couple of days before the episode premiere. There is a theory about this scene related to DnD, but I don’t know much about DnD, so I’ll just attach it.

It's also worth mentioning that this scene wasn't originally in the script and was added at Noah's request. I'm not really into the idea that all the cast interviews are meta or something like that, but it could be a hint that this scene was added into the plot by Will himself, who is trying to break through Vecna's illusion.

4. Some other hints that could be a reach but who cares at this point

Looking at this poster, you'd think Will would take a leading role, which never happened. But it makes sense if he's the one trying to free others. Will and Dustin are the only ones with a light on their bikes. Either they're both bones, or it hints that they'll be the key to saving the others. Mike and Lucas are stuck in the middle, choosing the second door —accept your fate. El is the only one looking back, because she chose the first door— take your own life. Or maybe she's the one who travels back in time.

Then we also have WSQK sync. When Will kills the demo, wsqk plays an add. People came to the conclusion that adds play when what is happening in the scene is not real. People also synced the episodes with the vinyls, if I'm not mistaken. This sync is with side C, which is presumably Will's POV, and Mindy says some interesting lines in the scene with Vecna and Will in the Sorcerer.

Could it be a hint that Will is about to wake up?

Top boxes are the original painting that Mike handed Will. In the epilogue (bottom boxes) the colours on the shield are switched.

Credits of noticing this go to @lilli_elif on X (as far as I can tell)

Remember what else was Blue and Yellow AND pointed out to be the wrong colours. Holly and the Roundabout in Vecnas Mind/ S5 Ep5. Noticing the Roundabout being wrong helps Holly escape. THIS WAS MEANT TO BE NOTICED. We were told the Painting Lie would “Pay off”. And it will. It’s Mike’s escape out, just as the Roundabout was for Holly.