JEthought-s

And here I am, stupid, sipping a cappuccino, adding yet another item to the already endless list of things that could have (and should have) triggered some kind of realization of his feelings in Eddie, main ones being:

- putting him in his will as the legal guardian of his son

- Buck almost dying from a lightning strike

- Buck almost dying in a car accident, getting kidnapped, forced into some psychopath’s roleplay game, tortured and injured

and now we can add a new entry:

- Buck being addicted to pills.

And, drumroll please, let’s all act surprised… NOTHING. ZERO. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I honestly don’t even know what else needs to happen for Eddie to finally have this realization.

Assuming it ever happens at all.

Even though, maybe because I was so disappointed, I tried to believe it at first, I knew that conformitygate wasn’t going to happen. But today I had a small bit of hope (even though I knew that, from a marketing perspective, Netflix would never, ever make any announcement about ST between February and March) , and I went back into the hashtag after months (months in which I basically took ST, one of my comfort show, threw it in the trash, and stopped caring about it completely).

Let’s all pretend to be surprised: nothing happened. But wow, how much I miss this fandom, which I was honestly shocked to find still active, and what a punch to the heart it was to see gifs of my beloved Byler again 🥺💔

I was happy about it and wanted to repost it, and surprise: I’ve been blocked💀

It was an account I didn’t follow (and I didn’t even know it was run by an Italian), so clearly they blocked me just because since the end of last season I’ve openly said I’m fed up with this so called slow burn (if you can even call it that, because nothing is burning at all), and I stopped following except for ep5 for Eddie, the crossover (because I watched Nashville), the one before last because everyone was saying something huge was supposed to happen (nothing happened, as usual), and the latest one because people said something would happen after the previous episode’s ending (again, nothing happened).

I’m always the dissenting voice, but… why exactly are you all so excited about this episode?

Premise: this season I’ve only watched episode 5 (because Eddie Diaz, I love you), the previous one for the crossover (because I follow Nashville—well, I did until this episode; after yet another pointless, cringe romance I’m dropping that too), and this one. Because yes, I’ll say it openly: I don’t care about the show anymore. Especially not the “new entries,” but honestly not even most of the “old ones” either (except maybe Maddie, whom I’ve always loved). The last episode of last season finally killed whatever emotional tie I still had with the series.

That said, Buddie was one of my biggest loves, so seeing the fandom meltdown I decided to watch and… okay, so?

Why all this enthusiasm? Because the episode was “insane”? Well, sure, when is it not when those two are the focus? (Though the fact it’s rated higher than the tsunami arc masterpiece is blasphemy to me.) So my question stands: SO WHAT?

There was no step forward for Buddie. People are building castles in the air over what? Because in the restaurant they thought they were a couple? Guys, people have thought that for years (THE DAMN ELF IN SEASON 2? 7 SEASONS AGO? Or 5x16: “you should take this act on tour”? Or the fact Hen, Chim, Maddie and Bobby always treat them like an old married couple?). Or because Eddie was called “princess”? Wow. Groundbreaking. Or the “I’m the other guy”? And…?

Do you realize what an opportunity this episode was? Let’s recap: Buck saved his son from the tsunami, he’s Christopher’s legal guardian, he stayed with Eddie through his depression, he came out, he was literally struck by lightning and almost died, he’s had jealous meltdowns, he nearly self-destructs when Eddie moves away, he buys his house so he can reunite with his son, and now gets kidnapped, tortured and almost killed and… nothing?

If all this didn’t even lead, not to them being canon, but at least to a click for Eddie’s feeling realization… what exactly does it take? What else is supposed to happen?

And everyone losing it over “Carry On My Wayward Son”… are you serious? The moment it started I laughed hysterically for 20 minutes. Tim’s favorite sport is trolling the fandom. He knows about the Destiel comparisons and… poof. He keeps giving interviews hinting they could become a couple, writes them like a couple, but never actually makes them one. And he’ll keep doing it forever, because apparently that’s enough for the fandom and the views go up.

Now someone will say: “but this is the slow burn of the century!”

Sure. Except in a slow burn, something eventually burns. Slowly, yes, but it burns. Here the only thing burning is my brain and my dignity, because despite not even following the show anymore, this still managed to annoy me.

And I swear, if I read one more “they’re laying the groundwork”… I’ll claw my own eyes out. Groundwork? It’s been 7 centuries, 20 millennia, 19 decades and 27 years and we’re still talking about groundwork?

When I decided not to watch the final episode because I was feeling too sad (and because as soon as I whatched Vol.2 I knew it was gonna be a colossal mess and that Byler would never go canon), besides Mike and Will, the thing I knew I’d miss the most was being here, going insane over all the theories.

Maybe that’s why, even without fully believing in it, I clung to it. Maybe more than believing, it’s hoping? Or rather: I believe in every single theory and detail this fandom has come up with, I just don’t see how or when it could actually happen.

You can’t theorize forever. Sooner or later you need facts and solid, concrete evidence. And let’s be honest, let’s do a very quick reality check: we went from January 7th and 14th because of Orthodox Christmas and New Year, to some Chinese date?! Not to mention what I call the “calendar deadline.” Tomorrow Bridgerton comes out, everyone will talk about only that, and it’ll dominate all of February too, considering Vol.2 drops on the 26th. In March there’s One Piece (which they’re clearly pushing to become a flagship show, since Stranger Things, their biggest money-maker, is over, and that basically leaves them with Bridgerton, which, while popular, doesn’t reach the same revenue or audience, and Wednesday, which is in a similar position to Bridgerton but also comes with extremely long production times), plus the Peaky Blinders movie. Thinking they’d overshadow any of this with a Stranger Things announcement is kind of delusional, to put it mildly.

And honestly, what would the announcement even be? A post like: “the new diamond of the season is 🥁🥁🥁 the real Stranger Things ending? I wouldn’t believe it even if it happened.

At this point even the hardcore fans are getting tired, and this hashtag is also proof of it; except for the usual blogs that always post and keep the hope alive (thank you for doing that, I love you) and for today’s day, which is full of excitement (I need to properly catch up on these latest developments, thanks WSQK), there’s almost no activity anymore. And considering they’re the only ones still holding on, since GA already moved on on January 2 without a second thought, the picture is pretty clear.

If they were really going to do this, they should’ve done it by mid-January at the latest. I just can’t see them showing up on, like, May 7 going “surprise, here’s the real ending!”

As much as I want to believe and hope I need something real, not just some other thing to dissect in the hope of maybe finding something that could hint that Conformitygate is real🥺

I admit, though, that there are two things that give me 0,000000000000000001% of hope, even though they align with February, and thus with a Bridgerton-centric month.

On February 9th, at the Super Bowl, it would be something EXTRAORDINARY. I'm a fan, and I've hardly ever missed one. The context isn’t right for promoting a series like Bridgerton, but it would be PERFECT for Stranger Things. Can you imagine a promo or even just a teaser where the Upside Down is shown? With the typical Stranger Things settings, music, colors, and scenery? It would be INSANE.

February 15th is the birthday of those two idiot trash brothers. Knowing them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re so ridiculously egocentric to make an announcement on that date.

Or maybe these are just the latest dates I want to believe in, instead of doing what I should've done from the start: accept it and move on

Damn it, to avoid feeling awful, I’ve stayed away from anything related to Stranger Things since January 1st (except for obsessively refreshing this hashtag for the past few days), so I’d completely forgotten he was going to be here. I should’ve chased him all over the city and forced him to tell me whether this is the real ending! I would’ve done way worse than anything Vecna ever did just to make him talk💀 Just kidding

Like, in my head it’s 100% real, but I don’t see a date when this hypothetical ending could be announced (I never believed and never will that they’d just drop it randomly out of nowhere). I go into this more here, breaking down the individual dates.

Hoping the GA wasn’t as dumb as I think they are, I ran this little experiment: I gave them different possible dates, brought up some Conformitygate related facts, and some of the replies, aside from confirming they’re idiots and absolutely killing my hopes, were honestly hilarious.

Here are the previous ones; now for today’s update:

Dialogue 1:

Me: Maybe February 14th, Valentine’s Day!

GA: Sure, and we celebrate with a threesome between Vecna, the Mind Flayer, and a Demogorgon? 💗🌈

Dialogue 2:

Me: I try to explain the symbolism of Holly and Alice in Wonderland

GA: Wait, was it Alice in Wonderland?

Me: I mean, yeah. It’s obvious.

GA: Oh really? I thought it was some ’80s version of Little Red Riding Hood. At one point I was expecting Vecna to show up dressed as the Big Bad Wolf 🐺

The truth is, we sit here losing our minds over dates, parallels, details, analyzing every single frame… but what I’m trying to say is that the GA, the audience this show is unfortunately made for now (and no, it hasn’t been a nerdy outsider show since season 1), just doesn’t care.

They wanted the bad defeated. They got that. And that’s all they needed.

So today I ran an experiment and tried asking my coworkers, true and pure essence of the GA, what they thought abt some possible dates, and whether they had noticed any hints in the finale that could point to it.

I’m sharing the most interesting conversations. The ones that, even though there’s really nothing left to do but cry because they brought all my fears to life and killed my last remaining hopes, also made me laugh😭💀😂

Dialogue 1

Me: Do you think it could come out on January 14th?

GA: Why, what is January 14th?

Me: Orthodox New Year. The other option was January 7th, Orthodox Christmas.

GA: And if not even Orthodox Jesus could do anything where Christian Jesus already failed, do you really think a year that starts on a different day is going to give you a miracle? Like, what’s next, a resurrection at Easter? That way we can cover all of God’s major dates🎄🎆🐣

Dialogue 2

Me: Maybe November 6th! That would be perfect for me!

GA: At that point, Halloween on October 31st would be better, at least the mood would be perfect. Ghostbusters!👻

Dialogue 3

Me: Didn’t you notice Steve? Why a baseball coach when he’s always played basketball?

GA: When did he play basketball?

Me: In the previous seasons!

GA: Whatever, it’s still a sport. What difference does it make? The ball is always round… just smaller🏀⚾️

Dialogue 4

Me: And the message? The silver cat, when yellow meets blue in the west…

GA (also my boss at work): J (my name), I know I’m the one who asked you to work all these extra hours, but I think it’s time to go back to a normal schedule, and actually give you a couple days off, because you’re clearly delirious, and we really can’t afford that🤒

AND THAT’S WHERE I THREW IN THE TOWEL.

First of all: do I believe in conformitygate? Absolutely yes (I predicted it on December 27 when no one was talking about it yet and episode 8 hadn’t even aired, so you can imagine).

Do I believe it could/could have happened? Naturally yes. The theories developed are detailed for a reason, they weren’t made randomly. And not only the ones made so far; the documentary itself shows blatant evidence.

Do I think it will happen? I would have said yes 100% until yesterday, today I don’t know. Maybe more no than yes, but I think you can help me get a clearer idea (I mean those who believed in it, analyzed it, or still believe. The post is long but please follow along, interact, and tell me what you think, cause I’m terrible with dates, I never remember them.)

As much as I’ve always been in favor of conformitygate, I’ve NEVER understood why everyone was so convinced that this ep9 (and why only one episode?) would come out on January 7.

To me, it was madness. Stranger Things is Netflix’s golden goose (the only ones approaching it could be Bridgerton, which however takes a smaller part of the audience than ST; and Wednesday and OnePiece, which still doesn’t reach those levels), they’d never allow a “genius move” like that to be revealed without profiting from it (here my friend @tvheartbreak explains it better). That’s why I didn’t believe in the 7th, nor in any other date in January, like the 10th, 11th, or today. Or rather, I never believed an alternate finale would come out on those dates.

Full disclosure: I thought (and maybe still do?) that there are many other dates. The two I was focusing on were: March 22, but especially November 6.

This made sense to me. Netflix already has its “peaks” to profit from (mostly subscriptions, but generally) this month: ST episode 8 + Bridgerton Vol. 1. Same for February, when Vol. 2 will come out. In March comes One Piece (+ I think Peaky Blinders movie). And then? Maybe The Witcher at the end of the year? But even then, after Henry Cavill’s departure, it’s more loss than gain. So, again, if there were an alternate finale, I was convinced it’d have been November 6.

And what does this have to do with the documentary? Simple. Because you have to strike while the iron is hot, but do it smartly. so instead of releasing it outright, you drop a hint. I thought they’d ride the wave, and the documentary would kick off the promotion. Imagine seeing exactly what we saw today, but in the last 30 seconds one of the actors (I think Finn, Noah, Jamie, or Millie) asks: “So this is it, the finale of our stories?” and the Duffers give a vague answer.

Or confirming that recent interpretations were right, someone asks: “So Vecna won?” and the Duffers reply: “So it was thought, my friends. So it was thought…”

Or again: a shot of Finn, a flash to Mike walking up the stairs, the door closes, black screen, and a whispered: “Wake up, Mike, wake up…”

Anyway, I’m not great at writing, but you get the idea. I expected them to send a short, clear 30sec hint to show there was more. Because for us who analyze, everything we’ve talked about so far is concrete, but do you really think the GA will do or read our theories? Like analyzing the silver cat’s message; when blue meets yellow in the West? Or noticing Steve became a baseball coach just because Vecna always saw him with a bat? No offense, because we all have loved ones who belong to the general audience, but 90% of them are just fools who wanted to see some special effects. Sadly, they make up the majority of viewers, so they have to be involved too.

So, do I believe in conformitygate? Absolutely and unfortunately yes. But I don’t see how it could be promoted now. The documentary was the only way to engage the GA. And I can’t find other dates for dropping the bomb. January 14 because it’s Orthodox New Year? January 20 because of the dice? January 17 because WSQK has something going on? GA doesn’t even have the slightest idea what WSQK is💀

Meanwhile, the documentary is something everyone was guaranteed to watch. Sure, we’re still talking about Stranger Things; even if they announced it on a random day it would still be news, but it doesn’t make much sense, especially with Bridgerton’s release approaching.

I don’t know, sorry for the super long post; maybe I’m just clinging to hope, or maybe I’m just sad and angry, or maybe it simply drives me crazy, the total lack of logical sense.

And I swear, not even when I came back from holidays after episode 8 aired did I see this much anger and disappointment.

I’ve seen a bit, but to get a clearer picture I’ll wait for my lunch break (at least then I’ll have a full hour to try to catch up) because right now all I see is angry people (and unfortunately I have nothing but bad feelings about this. I hope I’m wrong?!)🙃

I was sure they would NEVER release any episode, let alone that this would actually be one… but I admit that, to keep believing in Conformitygate, I needed at least a more obvious bait to be thrown🥲

Well, I’m at work now, and I certainly had no intention of watching it anyway so… Maybe I’ll catch up at the end of my shift or during a break, here and on X.

As an Italian, while watching the finale, throughout the entire thing there was one song echoing in my head: È TUTTO SBAGLIATO, STA ANDANDO TUTTO AL CONTRARIO DI COME L’HO IMMAGINATO NON SI PUÒ AMARE A METÀ…🎶💀🎶

(It’s the lyrics of a song that went viral this summer on TikTok in Italy. In English it’s like: Everything is wrong, everything is going the exact opposite of how I imagined it, you can’t love halfway…)

Especially during the ‘Friends? Best friends!’ scene + the goodbye with El, tell that, if you apply it to Mike, the line: IO NON SONO IN GRADO, DI FARE FINTA È PECCATO, VIVERE DI BUGIE SE È UN’ALTRA LA VERITÀ…🎶💀🎶 isn’t painfully perfect!

The reason I finally caved is that I had told my friends I wouldn’t watch the finale: because I was too attached, because I didn’t want it to end, and, most importantly, because I was absolutely convinced the ending would be a mess. I’d already told them at the end of Vol. 2 that it felt like I’d watched a completely different show. That was NOT Stranger Things. So either they were about to pull something even worse than GOT, or they were very clearly messing with us and we had all been Vecna’d (is that how you spell it? No idea. In Italian I said vecnizzati 🥲). And if that were the case, I told them to let me know, because that would mean more material was coming.

At first they were sweet and promised no spoilers. Then, around the 3rd, without actually telling me anything, they started yelling: NO YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT. NO MAYBE YOU UNDERSTOOD SOMETHING WE’RE ONLY GETTING NOW. PLEASE WE NEED YOUR OPINION.

And I was like: everyone breathe. What could I possibly have understood😭

Then even my coworkers, who’ve always thought I was insane for how attached I am to this show and its details, told me they specifically wanted to know what I thought about conformitygate. Important context: my coworkers are 100% GA. At that point I went: fine. Enough. I’m watching it.

Since yesterday I’ve done a full 24-hour deep dive on everything, and all I can say is: I HAD THIS FEELING ALREADY ON DECEMBER 27TH, SO I AM OBVIOUSLY ON THE CONFORMITYGATE BUS, HONESTLY, I COULD VERY WELL BE DRIVING IT. (That said, if this actually happens, speaking as a Byler fan, it is VERY MUCH at our own risk.)

What I don’t agree with is how everyone seems to think this is going to happen?? I’ve watched the collective meltdown over the idea that this mysterious episode was dropping on January 7th, and now you’re all doing countdowns thinking it’ll be tomorrow or that it’s the documentary?!?

It was painfully obvious it wasn’t coming out on the 7th. My friend @tvheartbreak who works in marketing explains this way better, but I can already say I don’t think it’s tomorrow either, and I don’t think it’s the documentary. First of all: why are we assuming it’s just ONE episode? Sure, it could be, but it could also be more. And second: why are you all so fixated on this happening NOW? Stranger Things is Netflix’s flagship show, the one that pulls the biggest numbers (maybe with Bridgerton). At most, they might drop the bomb in the documentary, and I can think of at least TWO other important dates. WHICH MEANS: I think I’m making another post about this👀

Then the melancholy hit and I decided not to watch the finale. (In my head, if I don’t watch it, the show doesn’t end for me. Out of sight, out of mind. Ridiculous, I know, but still…) I told my friends to just let me know whether I had been right or not, by some miracle.

And that’s what I did. Except that for the past three days my friend @tvheartbreak has been relentlessly harassing and insulting me to watch it, because she wants to know my opinion, especially since I said all of this before the final episode, without even seeing it.

Apparently there’s no secret episode (at least not yet), but maybe there could be one? And if I already had that feeling before, then watching the finale might give me a clearer impression… abt this so called Conformitygate?

I tried to ignore it, but today, during my break at work, literally seven people who watch the show, but aren’t Byler fans, asked me the exact same thing. That if there were a secret episode, I’d definitely be able to tell, because I’m a psychotic detail-obsessed person💀

And now I’m on the subway, after a 10h shift, on my way home, thinking: oh my god, what do I do? do I watch it?

I don’t want to watch it. I don’t want it to end. But I also want to understand what everyone is talking about.

I miss Byler so much, and from what I’ve gathered, I wouldn’t be very satisfied...🥺

Fortunately, the only joy of my 2025 has been Robron coming back❤️‍🩹

And on that note: Why is everyone so eager to say goodbye to the two psychopathic husbands?

Calm, loving scenes are nice and all, but come on, nothing beats the drama. The constant worry for each other, the protectiveness, the tension…🥺