a sudden drift of rain

if Nick and Jordan are undeniably queer, if Gatsby is actually white-passing and not white, if Myrtle and George’s briefly-possibly-alluded-to lost child is actually talked about, how much sharper does the book’s critique of the “lost” American dream get?

this musical refuses to let you ignore the nuances of these characters that were (more or less) *already present* in the book.

Daisy is absolutely a victim, but she is *also* a wealthy white woman who is willing to (literally) throw a working class woman under the bus (car) for her own safety, and who is willing to let a man of color face the consequences of her actions. Tom tricking George isn’t exclusively about getting rid of Gatsby, but also about a wealthy white man setting two marginalized characters against each other so that he doesn’t have to deal with them.

when we get to the end, when we meet Gatsby’s dad and learn that he’s Indigenous, when we contend with how disproportionately the violence impacts marginalized people, the conclusion is no longer that the American dream is lost or broken, but that it was a stolen thing to begin with.

i don't think it's that much of a stretch to call hänschen a "healthy melchior" tbh. they're both very (sexually) educated, confident young men, with dead friend(s), tender & tentative love ("love", in melchi's case) interests, who skirt around the systems which surround them. the differences are:

melchior is self-educated in sex and is practically desperate to share his knowledge. he's incredibly self-assured, both inwardly and outwardly; at most times to his detriment

hänschen was educated by his governess at a young age. his knowledge of sex is built on trust and comfort, not on rebellion. he is also self-assured, but he doesn't play his cards as openly as melchior

melchior's dead friends, of course, are moritz and wendla, and he is partially responsible for those deaths. their deaths are deemed necessary (in this path of paralleling, at least) to move his character forward, and we only see him start to grapple with grief by the end of the story

hänschen's dead friend is max von trenk, who dies from "brain fever" (p. 71, ziegler; i would check another ver. for what it might actually be referring to, but AH that's irrelevant!!), something entirely out of hänschen's control. i would argue that this is because hänschen is, as with moritz, "narratively androgynous" (i might be coining this term for my spaw talks. it is. V important to me.) and does not actively participate as much as melchi; but either way, von trenk's death happens (and is spoken about) early on. if melchi and hänschen functioned on parallel schedules, melchi would be running late

melchior and wendla's relationship is founded on hormonal tendencies, misinformation, and self-interest. it ends in tragedy, as we know, because of these things

hänschen and ernst, though! their relationship is also secretive, but it feels more like a shared secret, a soft one that they both know the gravity of, rather than a loose promise that isn't fully understood by one end. they move slowly, tenderly, and--as the scene is juxtaposed with melchior's suffering in the reformatory/wendla's death (musical, play)--are, themselves, a symbol of happiness

as with sex education, melchior is defiant of the system even if it does (more accurately, would) work for him. he envisions himself as more bold than he actually is with his little acts of defiance, all while worrying himself with philosophy that he thinks is consequential. this is a long way to say that he's a performative male sorry

hänschen (admittedly, somewhat problematically?) allows the system to work in his favor--he's charming, he "kisses ass", he behaves, he follows the rules even when he's aware that some rules are excessive or outright cruel. but these choices come from a place of concern--from a place of foresight. he knows that he'll have to keep secrets, he knows that there are consequences to rebellion, and he chooses to dodge those consequences when they depend on risks he isn't confident he'll be able to overcome.

Alright. I’m going to put together everything I’ve observed myself and seen on here into one final mega theory on memory loss. 

Vecna is screwing with both us, the viewers, and the memories of the whole party. 

The first place this really sticks out is in the coming out scene. Will says some things that are really odd. Number 1: One of the memories was something about the party getting malts at Melvald’s. Melvald’s is a general store where Joyce works. They don’t  sell milkshakes. But in the 50s, it was a restaurant where Henry and Patty went. Number 2: he mentions enjoying getting lost in the woods. He definitely did not enjoy that—last time he was in the woods he got kidnapped! Number 3: the Tammy thing. We’ve consistently been shown for the last five seasons that Mike is NOT Will’s Tammy. He has several parallels with Vickie, including this one

And this one 

And this one (Vickie paces, Max remarks that Holly is pacing just like Mike).

—plus Mike is obviously way way more than a hallway crush as they’ve had a deep and special friendship since forever (Mike telling Will that the first day he met him was the best day of his life), and a literal DAY ago Will was looking for signals to date him. Will is not himself.

But it’s not only Will’s memories being screwed with. Mike starts calling Joyce by her first name instead of Ms. Byers in volume 2, despite having called her Ms. Byers in vol 1. We know from previous seasons that Mike is mouthy and distrusts authority figures, but he sincerely respects the ones he likes and cares about the opinion of, like Joyce. This is pretty out of character. Also out of character is his sudden unwillingness to touch will, pulling his hand back when Will is thrown to the ground in e5 and his hand twitches awkwardly as he stands by Will’s bedside in e6. Now, this could just as well be a sign of Mike going back to repression mode after being overloaded with signals, but in S2, the only part of Will that remains free from the Mindflayer’s possession is the hand that Mike held during the crazy together basement scene. Their love is that powerful—remember Max saying all she needed was Lucas, and that the connection was broken the first time not because the music shut off but because he took his hand of hers? Yeah. That’s why Mike can’t touch Will yet. Another huge thing is the adults’, especially Joyce’s, lack of memory. They forgot his birthday. She can’t remember how old Will was when he went missing. Neither she nor Hopper remember that they LITERALLY WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL with Henry, and they + Bob Newby were partly responsible for having his dad arrested for the murders. That’s huge. That’s not something anyone just forgets. Vecna is playing them like they’re all pawns in his game, and he’s several steps ahead. 

And what do we know about the importance of love from The First Shadow? It’s everything. Brenner causing Henry to lose Patty (whom Mike canonically parallels!)

is what ultimately weakens him mentally enough to let the Mindflayer possess him, driving him towards evil. Forcing Will and those around him to lose important memories of and with, especially Mike, is exactly what Vecna wants. Without strong reciprocated platonic, familial, and romantic love, he will lose. He’s already slipping away. 

Part two of this theory is the references to other films. We know the duffers love to reference their favorite movies all the time—plus, they shared that giant whiteboard of film and show inspirations. Both these movies were on that board. 

First we have this No Way Home parallel. For those who don’t know, No Way Home ends with Peter Parker being forgotten by everyone. Will wears this fit early on in the season, and Mike supposedly wears this shirt in the epilogue. This is memory loss plot reference 1.

Second is all the references to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. We once again have the costume parallel—

(Which also explains the ridiculous beanie.) but we also have more plot references. In Eternal Sunshine, Joel and Clementine undergo procedures to erase each other from their memories after a breakup. The place they first meet is Montauk, and after Joel realizes that he doesn’t want to erase Clementine and the memories are crumbling all around him, we are left with nothing but their first memory together where the last thing she tells him is to meet her again in Montauk. Now, what was the working title of Stranger Things? Montauk. And what was Mike’s character called in that first draft? Joel. 

There’s no way all of this is merely coincidental.

We also have reports of tape merch that’s been promoted. And how do Joel and Clementine get their memories back? By playing a tape.

And remember—in the trailer, we all watched Vecna tell Will that he’ll be his spy one last time. There’s no way that this was just about a five minute peek at Max and an easy escape with El where Vecna left his most important vessel unsupervised. There’s something more here, and maybe all of this began when Vecna put Will in a trance. 

Alright. So all that said, there’s one last element at play here. And maybe it’s a stretch, but it’s a thought I felt worth including: we, the viewers, are also being Vencna’d. that’s why vol 2 felt so off. Netflix hasn’t been cutting scenes; Vecna has. Remember what he says to the kids? Your memories of how you got here might be foggy. Maybe we are missing some pieces. They’re just going to be revealed to us in the finale when the characters figure out that something is missing from their memories. It’s all a puzzle. Also, the way these scenes are shot are really telling—a solid portion of them are just Jamie staring straight into the camera and talking directly at the viewer. 

4th wall break. We’re complicit. We’ve been actively participating in the story since we literally started listening to WSQK. This is so much more meta than we thought.