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One of the more interesting allegorical readings of Stranger Things is from TV Microscope, who argued back in 2025 that the series is built around a much larger metaphor than most of us spend time discussing. I think we’ve circled the idea in different ways especially in some of the Conformity Gate discussions, but just setting it out plainly, TV-M asks us to contemplate what is the story itself a metaphor for? And more specifically, what does El allegorically represent?
Now that we’ve seen the ending, I’ve been revisiting that idea.
Viewing the series through this lens, El isn’t only a literal character. Allegorically, she may function as the embodiment of something larger. If that’s true, then her ending carries symbolic weight beyond the surface plot.
It also made me think about Nikki in Tales from ’85.
Full disclaimer: I haven’t watched Tales (and I may never). This is literally just my impression from seeing screenshots and hearing people talk about the character.
What immediately caught my eye wasn’t the discourse. It was the imagery of the purple mohawk. My brain immediately went to Mike wanting a mohawk. Then I started wondering why a seemingly new character would suddenly occupy that visual space. If Tales intentionally diminishes the Mike-Will connection, does Nikki inherit part of the symbolic function that El carried? Not as the same character, but as another person who visually and narratively occupies some of that space?
I could be completely wrong. I haven’t seen enough of Tales to know. Ironically, that’s part of why I’m mentioning it. TV-M tells a story about realizing the central metaphor of a film before watching it because they weren’t yet immersed in all the details. Sometimes stepping back lets you notice patterns that you might otherwise overlook once you’re emotionally invested in every scene and line of dialogue.
The finale has me thinking about Mike’s line to El in S5 when they are talking about escaping to a place with three waterfalls; he says that sometimes the Party has to leave town and travel to a faraway land. They all start again…together.
If the ending really is the ending, maybe that’s simply about growing up.
But if there’s more to Conformity Gate (or if the ending is intentionally symbolic) that line lands differently. Maybe the point isn’t that hope disappears. Maybe some things simply can’t survive inside Hawkins as it currently exists. It may mean leaving isn’t abandoning love or identity, but realizing it’s the only way those things can finally live openly.
In the article TV-M posits that El allegorically represents Mike and Will’s queer love for each other. They break it down beautifully. If the link to the Substack works, here it is:
How not to miss the central metaphor of a story.
Given that the ending can be viewed as both tragic and beautiful, El’s decision can be viewed as two possible outcomes:
El truly dies
Mike and Will sacrifice their love to restore “normalcy”. The ending exposes or accepts conformity.
El survives somewhere far away
Mike and Will’s love can live and even thrive, but they must leave their small town for it to do so. And that may mean cutting ties with many of the people they love. It can be seen as protection by them, not just for themselves, but also for their family and friends (their reputations and standing especially in the 80s in a small town).
TV-M believed the Duffers would leave it allegorical; they would not allow the subtext of Will and Mike’s mutual love to become expressly canon. I am hoping they are wrong and that in the next few months, something will be revealed that is more hopeful and less hidden.
I think it’s time to be bold. And yes, our editors were right to draw a parallel to something said in a very unrelated series, This is Us….the whole show really was just a gay love story.
And as they say in The First Shadow (paraphrased), “it’s a sad song [but] I like the gay ones best. You never know the ending ‘til it’s sung all through. C’mon, then, let’s make it a gay one. Even if we have to make our own ending…”😉
But no matter where this journey ends, El textually is still a hero, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a girlfriend. She is all those things and more. She and other characters may also allegorically represent other ideas and concepts in the work. However, for Will and Mike, she arguably represents a love story that can never be told. At least not in Hawkins…at least not explicitly in the canon work. The Duffer Brothers said they knew from the beginning she would have to leave in the end, but I’ll hold out for a more hopeful ending. I still believe. And I do like the “gay” endings best.
i was watching this video about st being nina project videos
this stuck out to me: "it's important to not just see your past, but to fully re-experience it. in doing so, i believe we can repair your broken signals."
stranger things was created around 80s nostalgia. many people are quite literally, re-living their past through watching it. but it leaves out of the main text (only subtext so far), a critical part of the 80s. one which greatly affects our main characters and one which many people likely didn't pay much attention to unless they were personally affected. homophobia and the AIDS crisis created a traumatizing period for the queer community; a stain on their comforting 80s nostalgia. the story is not complete without bringing it to the surface - to see ALL of the 80s. the parts they ignored or even perpetuated. to fix the "broken signals" - the homophobia that still lingers in society.
12+ hours of editing and sound mixing for the most devastating video to grace your screen…
The Mindflayer is just a metaphor… Falling in love with someone you shouldn’t can feel a bit like getting possessed by an Eldritch monster.
This is what I think Will was actually remembering in Castle Byers and in Mike's basement in S3 and what his train of thought was (his feelings for Mike just weren't canon yet, so the Duffers couldn't go quite this hard…).
Plus, a sneak peek into Mike's POV when he agrees with Will about that roller coaster feeling...
"Something is coming… something hungry for blood…" (the gay and in love with your best friend flavor of heartbreak)
"it got me…" (love)
"You were just swinging [that bat] by yourself…"
"Where were you when I was lonesome?"
anyway I'M SICK!!!!!!!! This Frankenstein creation is like actually sick and twisted and I need to be put in jail but it's art and i'm so proud of it, I hope you enjoy/cry. I put a lot of thought into making it as devastating as possible!
some of my favorite mostly imperceptible technical details: max and lucas magically disappearing from mike & will's movie date lol, all my sound bridges/audio overlays to indicate will (and mike, at the end) reliving his memories in the context of whatever he's doing/looking at, the ominous film projector reel, stitching all the movie theater music clips together to the exact beat, the new rain matching the two diff storm intensities, the thunderclaps that I had to match to each lightning strike bc removing the OG background music also removes all the OG sound effects lmao, the added comic book page flip sounds and door noises etc, seamlessly lengthening the song by over a minute, etc ! so many details lol
Mike and Will fell to their Death on the Same Day - November 12th 1983
I'm not kidding. We all remember Mike jumping down that cliff at the quarry in S1, but at the beginning of S5 we saw Will literally doing the same thing. Climbing that tree to escape the Demo and then jumping off as he's been followed. The dates are confirmed in the show, very obviously. Can't believe we've been sleeping on that.
If you play it side by side they do everything in sync. The jump, suddenly stopping mid fall, moving again... only that Will actually fell and Mike started defying gravity.
We know Will actually died that day (yeah he came back to life ofc), but what about Mike? Max taught us you have to follow your memories back to your death to escape the maze of memories. Something that worked for Will already, since S5 started with his death... Mhh.
I fear there's no proving Byler without investigating Mike's 'death' first. And everything leads me back to this day.
But hey, just watch it yourself:
Don't ask what wrong with Troy's voice, it abstracted every single try saving the file.
If you only wanna watch the actual sequence jump to ~ 01:30, but then you'll miss Mike and Troy answering to Will's singing and El paralleling Vecna :3
Oh and El heard a ticking noise.
Anyways, Matthew Modine answered my comment on Insta today, I'm very happy. :3 Weird feeling when you call someone Papa and they actually answer for the first time in 12 years... o_O
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In the first episode, Will rolls the dice and received a "7".
I've long thought that there's a lot of hidden meaning and symbolism here.
If you turn a "7" upside down you get "ㄥ". This resembles a capital L.
In the scene above, we even see Mike holding a "7up" while Mike and Will discuss the importance of knowing a specific number and while Will alludes to his feelings in code. "dnL" is a real drink that has existed as an upside down version of the famous drink. Also makes me think of the term "down low" which is slang for men who are closeted.
The show has also utilized capitalizing the first letter of a word to emphasize a point. Robin says her and Steve are "platonic with a capital P" which is the exact opposite of love with a capital L.
In ST3, there's a famous song on the soundtrack titled "The First I love You" which does the opposite. Love with a lower case l. This song plays during the scene where Robin comes out to Steve (the platonic with a capital P relationship), but it also plays when El says "I love you" to Mike at the end of the season (and Mike doesn't respond).
So, yes, I do think 7 is a code for Love with a capital L.
Will rolled the dice and his fate was falling in Love... with Mike.
He was then faced with a dilemma: should he cast fireball (drop a bomb/tell the truth). Or should he cast protection and play it safe?
We know his choice:
He drops the bomb on Mike. Symbolically, he tells Mike he loves him (with a capital L!!!).
Then we come back to the same dilemma for Will once again in ST5:
But this time, he chooses protection. He's vague, and avoids speaking to Mike directly like he once did.
Mike didn't truly see the roll here. So guess what?
When he turns to look in Will's direction. If you re-watch this scene, he first looks forward towards Nancy/Jonathan then turns his head to the left... exactly where Will is standing... while he says "I can't lose her again".
When Will pushed him to do so while standing behind him and featured in the camera shot.
Each time he cannot say or write it, El is present but Will is missing. But every time he can say it, Will is right there beside him.
This isn't some re-used plot point that doesn't properly resolve. This is a major aspect of the story as a whole... that's why it keeps re-occurring.
His feelings and his heart is integral to the story as a whole. Without heart, it all falls apart.
Above is one of my favourite scenes through a metaphoric lens. Will feels "crazy" "nervous" and "the sky spins" for him; these are feelings of being in love and he's struggling with it. Lucas says he gets nervous too but "the sky doesn't spin" for him. He then asks Mike "it ever spin for you?" And, of course, Mike avoids directly answering the question. Unwilling to explicitly reveal his heart. However, he does immediately turn his complete attention towards Will.
But his feelings remain a mystery. He cannot say "I love you" ever again since ST4. He creates the motto "friends don't lie" while he continues to lie to his friends and himself. He builds a bomb that he truly never symbolically drops. He never becomes "Mike the Brave".
Even for viewers who deny Byler evidence feel like something is missing from ST5. They may not be able to pin point exactly why it felt so unsatisfying. But a major reason is Mike and his arc. Mike himself has been a mystery for nearly a decade now. A mystery with many clues and buildup but no reveal or resolution. The "X" was never solved, nor the missing puzzle piece found.
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How the show hints that Mike's story isn't over yet...
The UD "imploded" along with El, right before Mike's eyes. This was clearly foreshadowing...
Robin, the bird, got grounded/landed. Unable to fly... People keep using the phrase "stuck the landing" for the ending. Which is deviously clever because it sounds good on the surface, but the show keeps reiterating how important being able to fly is. Also the show’s “grades” definitely “plummeted”… they predicted this…. Lmfao.
This was the ending we got but...
THIS WASN'T THE END TO ROBIN'S STORY! THERE WAS MORE!!!
She found a missing tape! The concept of a missing tape is so frequently alluded to within the show and outside of it. Click the link for some examples of this.
Clearly these scenes are connected. Both Mike and Robin have a little version of themselves whom they look up to. This little version of themselves is brave and fearless!
Their inner child that accepts themselves for who they are before society tells them they should feel shame for being different.
Not to mention how both Mike and Robin have alter egos: "Rockin' Robin" and "Mike the Brave".
After finding the tape, Robin learns to stop being scared of who she is. She embraces herself and learns to fly once again.
Now why connect Mike with this speech without him achieving the same outcome?
Sometimes you need to read something twice to get it. You might need to watch a movie three times to understand it. You might have to have that album on repeat for a week until the lyrics make any sense. You're allowed to engage with it and can keep engaging with it until it means something to you. People will see a painting at a museum and laugh about not getting what the big deal is but like you can come back, you can see it at another time, and maybe that next time it'll be different for you. I'm of the belief the "media literacy crisis" would solve itself if more people just sat down and did it again. Watched, read, played, listened, etc like I don't think people are getting more ignorant necessarily I just think we're not glorifying personally replaying things nearly as much as we should be.
And the Mindflayer, spider creature, whatever the hell it was supposed to be, had a pulsating, heart-like organ. You can also hear a heartbeat after the fade out into the epilogue if you turn your volume up. It leads into the banging of the bricklayer.
Not sure if that fits at all into what you're thinking, but I figured I'd bring it up. They're details that have bugged me since the finale.
Not to mention how Vecna is referred to as "One" and how "the one" is used within the show...
A romantic concept... funny when you remember Mike referred to Will as "Vecna" aka the "One" within the same episode.
Then we have this line from Mike in regards to Vecna... Mike says this then immediately looks at Will.
AND this scene. Will says he has a "crazy" feeling. He says he feels nervous and the sky is spinning for him. Hm, sounds like being in love. Lucas looks to Mike and asks if he ever feels that too and he doesn't answer (he also never says "I love you" to El). Mike then says "maybe he's close" to Will, and he's right- the one causing these feelings in Will is literally standing right in front of him!
Plus the whole "signals" metaphor. Will is a receiver who receives signals from both Vecna via the hivemind but also from... Mike.
All I'm saying is that there has always been quite an elaborate analogy here within the show that most people missed.
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it’s always funny to me when people in fandom act like there’s only one acceptable way to interpret a character.
and no, i’m obviously not talking about takes that are genuinely harmful or target real people or marginalized groups. i’m talking about people theorizing, analyzing, and sharing different readings of fictional characters, only for someone in the comments to go, “no! that’s not it!”
art is subjective for a reason. we all bring different experiences, perspectives, and biases to what we consume. if someone has a different interpretation than you, that doesn’t invalidate yours.
you don’t have to agree with every take you see, but acting like your interpretation is the only objectively correct one completely misses the point of engaging with art in the first place. don’t like it? scroll. disagree? discuss. but stop treating differing character interpretations like a moral failing.
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