Queer-nerd

jonathan Byers is repeating the same romantic mistakes as his mom

Tra*ma responses of Will & jonathan

analyzing the ab*se subtext between Lonnie & jonathan

- hargrove/mayfield and Byers family parallels

El & Post-institutional syndrome

El wanting to be “pretty” has nothing to do with crushes

The narrative meaning behind the song ‘should i stay or should i go’

The fathers of ST (narrative analysis) 

Why Mike resented Max

analyzing the phrase  ‘only love makes you that crazy and that damn stupid.” (in relation to steve, joyce, El, hopper, Will,mike, etc) + another ref  I forgot to mention related to the 1st post-here

Other theory/ meta /analyses posts

- Will & henry parallels

-crashcourse of evidence that Will created the upsidedown/mf

- All the psychic boys with bowl cuts : that the duffers reference in the show (cough it’s a lot)

- Analyzing all the door symbolism in st 

-analyzing all the rainbows in st 

-analyzing the food in st  

-Analyzing the religious symbolism in ST

-analyzing the clothes in stranger things (s1-3) + analyzing the clothes in the 004 trailer

-analyzing the flower symbolism in st

-All the references to fire (s1-3)

- The  spying/st#lking elements in ST + phone parallels .

-S3 ST ship disses

- narrative analysis “things” in stranger things 

-analyzing  every name in stranger things (comics, books,and religious symbolism/refs) 

-analyzing Will’s b day 

-Why Will is called a “cleric” & “wizard theory/analysis

-’catcher in the rye’ ref in ST

-clown symbolism (short post).

- ‘never ending story’ ref meaning/ new coke ref

-analyzing karen’s books

-Nancy /nevermore ref other nancy easteregg here

-just a cute parallel between Joyce & El other 

-jonathan & mike parallel here

Gif sets (with parallels)

here, here,here,here, here, here, and here

Byler meta/theories  

-m*leven paralleled to family members (s4)

-byler being paralleled to Robin/vickie (s4)

-m*leven vs byler parallels:Caring, letters, truth and superheroes:s4

- mike & El hiding their feelings at the airport (s4)

-presents/byler  v m*even analysis (s4)

- byler hints in part 1 & 2

- Mike’s s4 clothing =conforming to his parents’ loveless dynamic

-m*leven & ted/karen s4 parallel

- byler painting vs m*leven letter (visual parallel) (s4)

-byler/m*leven hill parallel (s4)

-Mike’s plagarized confession (s4)

-Mike’s confession : conformity k*lling kids (s4) /similar post here

- Byler lying about being “just” friends (s4)

-byler being paralleled to otherships in s4 -here, here, here, here, here

-superman/byler analysis (s4)

-byler s4 movie/show refs + here + here

pre s4...

Why Mike resented Max 

byler s4 theory/ s4 film analyses

- reasons to ship byler (vid) if you’re a byler shipper you should watch - you’ll love it :D. My other byler vids are on here too , on my youtube channel.

*summation -explaining all the points for why mileven isn’t endgame

*byler vs mileven parallels

funny m*leven & stancy parallel

funny m*leven & l*max parallel

* Kali, El, and Mike parallels (it’s sibling love, not romantic with m*leven)

- Byler is the main pairing of st ( all ship parallels and contrasts to one another). Aka which pairings aren’t endgame (jancy, jopper, Mileven and lumax) - and why.

* Mileven being referred to “romeo and juliet’ isn’t romantic- it’s another diss at their reationship

* Mike and projecting his  romantic feelings for Will on to El 

 -Stobin vs Mileven (parallels/contrasts)

Post s3 spotify songs hint at byler being endgame. -  The duffers choices in music prove byler is endgame (*short part 2 / and part 3 of this). part 4. And 004 song choices of byler-part 5 . part 6 mf and el hint

*script releases of s3 verifying my past anti-mileven interpretations of scenes.

Mileven isn’t “built up”(positively) like people claim 

-El is NOT in love with mike analysis

-Why I no longer think Mike is bi, but gay (deep-dive analysis)

Mike & El didn’t get back together at the end of s3 /  pt 2 /pt 3

- The duffers choices in music prove byler is endgame (*short part 2  / and part 3 of this).

-What Mike meant by “Not my fault you don’t like girls”

-Mike will ‘come out’ to his mother (prediction/theory)

-  d&d symbolism tells us Mike and Will love each other

-Dart & Dustin vs mileven parallels

- 80s movies referenced in the show, hint that Mike is gay

byler break up vs mileven fight

-Dustin knows what’s up…

- Lingerie-store vs sauna ( internalized homophobia analysis)

-  the mileven kisses were supposed to make you uncomfortable (physical intimacy vs being in love- show analysis)

- Byler hints in the background of s1-3

-BYLER MASTERPOST - ( mileven vs Byler parallels, why mileven isn’t endgame, Mike’s queer coding, will and El comparisons, the byler-centric ending interpretation, book/comic ref , extra stuff . Old post).

other Byler meta/ theories (down below)

 Byler in d&d comics

MAGNUM/anti mileven ref

-mileven being paralleled to Hopper/El (aka not romantic)

- mileven paralleled to Jopper and Karen/Billy

-dawson’s creek easter eggs in st- byler evidence (x) (x)

-IT easterggs -byler evidence

-  Will/El comparisons relating to Mike

-Mike doesn’t smile in photos, unless he’s looking at Will

-Mike interprets ‘growing up’ with liking girls (internalized homophobia)

- why mike is a paladin & Will is a cleric

-  it’s cannon that Mike/Will go on movie double-dates all the time

- mileven vs byler breakup parallels/castle-byers being destroyed interpretation

- ‘welcome to my world’ byler easteregg

- Why people deny Will is gay/queer

- s3 ending interpretation + addition here

-  in the comic- Will’s last thought before his ‘death’ was Mike (reblog) 

- Will byers being jealous 

-Mike complaining on the couch (after the mileven breakup) vs Mike apologizing to Will?

- Stranger things twitter hinting at byler (X) (X)

- blank makes you crazy vs crazy together

- Mike’s ‘love confession’ was a lie

- Mike is the ‘pinning one’- he’s whipped (pre s3 post)

- Will and Mike act differently in public than they do alone (reblog)

- The song “the first lie” and “the first I love you” -prove mileven aren’t in love

- BYLER and the 7 easter egg

*-Mike and rainbows

- All of Mike’s queer coding  (pre s3)

-Defending Mike

Short byler posts

-Mike’s past jealousy

-skam/st crossover /gay easteregg

st spotify playlist

- Will has a stuffed frog to remind him of his ‘frog-face’

- Stancy parallels mileven , while lumax and jancy parallel byler  (X) (X) (X) 

- ‘we can be heroes’ Easter egg/interpretation

- shortest byler posts or byler reblogs I commented on *(x) *(x) *(x) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)  (X) (X) (X) 

s4 movie byler posts

here,  here, here, here, here, here,  here , here, here, and  here

st character meta

Jonathan meta- here, here, here, here, here, 

Max & Billy meta-here & here

Mr Clarke meta- here

Kali meta- here

Nancy meta-  here ,here, 

steve didn’t crush on robin- here

S4 analysis (part 1 )

vecna (mental health) allegory + Brenner and psych ab*se themes  (El, Henry, and Kali)

governmental experimental ab*se themes

who will vecna target next theory- here and here  

Byler analysis of part 1- here, here, here,here,here, here

jonathan analysis (s4 part 1)

Will, El, Mike bullying parallels

El wants familial love from Mike not romantic (parallels of Mike to lab fam and other family members)

Will & El both being the “cure” to vecna (theory)?

jason is a good villain

- robin & nancy: ruth easteregg

S4 theories/trailer analyses (before season 4 airing)

s4 list /summation of theories (posted right before part 1-some did end up being right/close. we’ll see if anymore are right in part 2)

- mike’s monologue theory (posted after part 1)

-Vecna theory (before part 1- in relation to henry, was right about vecna trageting tra*ma, wonder if the connection to Will/timeparadox part of theory is still possible given the ud being stuck on the day he went missing)

- Will byers’ (byler) painting theory (before part 1-tbd)

-At the end of part 2 Will joyce be stuck in Russia??

analyzing the recent Creel teaser-here, here, here , here, here, here,here, here, here I’d read these creel posts in order.

-powers are dangerous to their users.

- is eddie going to d*e?

-angela/ chrissy theory (correct theory)

-will the byers dinner awkward (correct/ pretty correct theory)

- the kermit the frog refs : here + here

-subversion of the 004 teaser

- El going into Will’s memories theory

- Jonathan’s abandonment issues in s4-theory

- romeo &juliet s4 ref: aka m*leven diss /pro byler ref

-military in hawkins theory/paranoia and witch hunts in Hawkins

‘rolling a 11 in s4- is ominous/satanic panic of hellfire’ theory (proven mostly correct-waiting for part 2 for full verification)

Will b day/Lonnie visiting theory + creel parallel .

How easter/Will’s b-day may affect Jonathan

will they reference Will’s b day (all the references to Will’s bday/bdays in general )

byler s4 theory/ s4 film analyses

mirkwood theory

Will El & Will become numbers together?

kali returns theory

s3 meta: about  lack of communication, the critique of commercialism, and the misinterpretation of s3′s plot/characters appearing ‘shallow’

here, here, here, here

Rebel robin (book/podcast posts)

here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here

St theory:  Dissociative Identity disorder theory

*don’t really believe the did theory anymore- but I still believe Will may have created certain d&d creatures with his imagination (because of tra*ma).

Will created the mf & the upsidedown (DID psych/narrative analysis part 1) + Will’s alters/split personalities ( DID analysis Part 2). (tw:csa). extra supplemental evidence for part 2 :  here, here, here, here here, here , here here, here, here, *here ,*here, *here, here, here, here, here, here,here, *here, *here, here  , here part 3 (just possible proof of the DID theory from outside canon sources : st comics, novels, spotify playlists).supplemental video post for  DID posts : video evidence for mf/upsideown theory  

-crashcourse of evidence that Will created the upsidedown/mf

Lonnie sold m*th theory ( it relates to did theory/s3 stolen fertilizer and the flayed eating chemicals,etc. )

Had Erica and Lucas in s4 be in a scene comparable to police brutality . Even having Jason point a gun at Lucas. And having poor Erica be tackled by a man (talked about it more thoroughly here) .The writers didn’t have the guts to meaningfully touch on how prevalent racism was in the 80s - so without doing so it just felt like they were exploiting black trauma for suspense. Without even thinking of how that would negatively affect or trigger black viewers. They also made Billy racist but not explicitly so. Arguably so fans could still thirst after Billy and deny his racism -and possible so they could keep their racist fans within the G.A. They could have called out the deniers after s2 via an interview a long time ago. And in s3 they gave Billy a redemption arc when his racism wasn't even rectified in s3 (they just ignored it)? Tbf , Lucas was very much likable and level headed for most of the seasons (I’ll give them that) . And I also appreciate how intelligent and affluent they made both Lucas & Erica . But, I did find some aspects of Erica’s portrayal problematic since the very beginning- she always seemed to embody the “sapphire/sassy trope.” And Erica's actress has verbally implied she's had qualms with Erica embodying the " sassy black woman" trope (although subtly).

After the finale the Duffers also claimed that "no one is concerned about Erica" cause she's "so tough". Can we stop the adultification/masculinization of young black girls? It's awful and problematic. Isn't her character in middle school (it would be normal to be concerned for her cause she's a literal child)?! I hope Priah gets better roles in the future.

They never addressed what happened to Argyle, when they could of just said a random one liner saying he left the city before the military check points were set-up. They also didn't even give the actor a heads-up that he would not be returning for s5. It just shows to me that once again they don't care about the majority of their poc characters or even actors .Similar to Erica , Argyle could also fall into another problematic trope: the "hispanic stoner trope".

QUEER REP: QUEER BAITING A COUPLE. They constantly compared Mike/ Will to canon couples for 5 seasons just to foreshadow unrequited love . And they used byler in marketing/social media constantly. Will said that if he lost mike he'd want it to be done like "ripping off a bandaid" (the writers didn't give the queer viewers that). They dragged us along even in the finale, cause they wanted our viewership and engagement to make money. They repeat the tired old trope of : gay best friend needs to gets over straight bff (who is in love with the main heroine). Then have the gay friend lie to prop up and fix that straight pairing (while establishing the cyarno trope with the painting but never addressing it) . And in that season , they have him literally 3rd wheel the straight couple just to make him suffer (and use him as a punching bag for the whole series).Because a lot of straight writers subconsciously romanticize queer pain (and think it adds depth to their writing) .

Then they force said gay character to come out because he was coerced to by the villain . While the show never even uses the word "gay" for either Robin or Will . Then the sapphic couple also gets together/break up OFF SCREEN (while all the straight couples get actual development or closure) . They also have the show take place during the aids epidemic with no mentions of it, and ignore the fact that 'anti gay propaganda' was prolific in the 80s . If Duffers want to talk about “realism” to justify Will getting rejected : it's not "realistic", for a room full of straight people to all be accepting of Will in the 80s . Let’s talk about how the Duffers barely reference homophobia in the 80s- so the straight audience doesn’t feel too bad about their own subconscious biases and LONG history of discriminatory practices ! THAT'S NOT "REALISTIC"-it's HISTORICAL REVISIONISM. The straight G.A bullied the queer fanbase for years (because queer viewers wanted better queer rep and fell for the queer bait). Those bullies never have to reflect on their actions (they're rewarded). They also didn't even give Will an actual 'rejection': he just rejects himself which is almost worse. Then he gets a 0.5s scene with a nameless guy -wow how revolutionary . "Gay epilogue bf/gf" is also another problematic gay trope.

Because an epilogue bf is a "tokenistic nod rather than meaningful inclusion" of a romantic gay relationship . Will getting rejected is just remnants of the Usa's Hays code: which made it illegal for films, tv and books to have a queer character in them unless they die , have an unrequited love, or a sad ending . This is also why shows do subtle queer coding even today (it was how writers back then got around the law to give their queer characters a happy ending) . The coding in ST was for queer readers to pick up on , while straight viewers would not . And that's why straight viewers today will say we're "delusional " : queer coding is now primarily weaponized by straight writers for marketing purposes. They know queer coding is usually only noticed by queer viewers . And they use this to their advantage when 'baiting' a queer couple, and not following through. They take advantage of the queer viewers, but also use their straight / heteronormative viewers as a shield (since they know they'll defend them in the end) .

Using sa/csa imagery with the monsters just for shock value. And as an “allegory” again cause they didn’t have the guts to address the subject (just like they didn’t have the guts to address homophobia or racism thoroughly or meaningful ) .They just triggered a bunch of sa victims for nothing , and for multiple seasons . As a gay csa victim this really pisses me off.

This is disgusting because there was no narrative reason to do this. It's not like they even tried to explore how and why THIS specifically would traumatize Will. They just did it for shock value and to torture their gay character some more. Don't even get me started on the sa imagery for poor Heather. They doubled down on this imagery in s5 with other kids too- for again seemingly no narrative reason. Or maybe for more nefarious reasons...

Have Karen (who is in her 40s) almost hook up with a teenage (18y old) Billy . And she doesn’t even call it off cause of his age but because “she has a family.” In a lot of ways Karen was the goat but that choice did ruin her character for me. Couldn’t she at least tell Billy: ‘you're much too young for me. I don't want to take advantage of you" in addition to her 'having a family' comment? Also having Murray encourage teenagers to bang was weird. I'm SIDE EYE-ing the Duffers forever . Especially cause they also added superfluous csa imagery and forced us to watch kids make out in s3.

In the Wheeler family, this questionable behavior isn't just from Karen . In s1, we have El (who didn’t initially know what a friend was ) ask Mike if he’d be her brother or friend at the snowball-and then he kisses her. In s2 we see a gifted boy (who talks about "ectotherms") be "IN LOVE" with a girl who was just learning how to tell time and what “compromise” means . Then in s3, Mike just makes out with her constantly despite El having to ask Max “how do I know what I like?” And in s3 she didn't even know what Illinois was (even after going to Chicago in s2). But... there was no (morally questionable) power imbalance between the 2 .Nope...not SUPER Creepy at all . No real world implications. I'm probably overthinking it : it's not like men in real life have weird fantasies about taking advantage of naive -impressionable girls with less knowledge of the real world than them so they can manipulate and groom them into a relationship (laughs nervously).

In real life, Mike would have been jumped for taking advantage of such a girl. Yeah, she matured and grew later on (but them dating, especially in the early seasons was always creepy and morally questionable). Myself (and others) have been saying for years: she needed friends, family , and socialization before she jumped head-first into a romantic relationship.

The worst part is the Duffers placed a child in an old problematic sci-fi/fantasy trope called "born sexy yesterday" . No , I'm not saying she was sexy for people who love twisting my words. The trope has been around for decades but the term was only recently coined by youtuber 'pop culture detective' . (I'd recommend watching their video about it ) . The trope is usually about "a main heroine who has superpowers , but is mentally stunted like a child (and has little to no exposure to the outside world) . Her male love interest is often a normal (or nerdy) human man who teaches her about the real world and grooms her into a relationship ."

One alarming thing I learned from 'pop culture detective's" video was that an element of the trope involves the woman innocently undressing in front of a group of men cause she doesn't understand the social rules (this is usually done for gross fan-service) . This made my heart stop cause El did attempt to undress in front of the boys in the 1st episode. Initially, I though that it was to indicate how little privacy at the lab she had (or worse) . Now I'm just side eyeing the writers who wrote this (especially given how infamous Hollywood is toward child actors)...

The Duffers didn't subvert the trope: by showing how problematic Mike/El were together and letting El break it off . But instead they doubled-down on romanticizing their relationship .And worst of all: they used a child for the trope, which is EVEN WORSE than the initial problematic trope itself!!!!!! Mike was also clearly their self insert so it's even creepier .

Compared Mileven to to El & Brenner, El& hopper and El& Henry (post with proofs here) . But then they sell mileven as a romantic fantasy despite Mike STILL not being able to say “I love you” back to her in s5. You suck, Wheeler . The fact El’s whole life has been controlled by men who thought they knew what was best for her. And then they made El's sacrifice revolve around her (not great) bf is just gross and frankly unearned. Especially given how little positive development we saw of their relationship. She literally said in s4 Mike didn't "understand" her , but then in s5 claims Mike was the only one who "understood" her. It was so obvious men wrote this line to fulfill their (Mike) self-insert fantasy. GROSS. El deserved to live and have fulfilling relationships and bonds with other women. Especially when men took away her mother, aunt, "sister", childhood, and even her ability to express her femininity.

Mileven was also compared to Ted/karen. And even without El , Mike still conforms with his Ted glasses and ends up like his father who is oblivious to the world around him: hanging up the painting that he still thinks El commissioned . "You're just blind that a girl's not grossed out by you." At least El & Will are away from Ted 2.0 .

Mike falls for the false fantasy of El (that Will made). Just like in the end, Mike writes her in his fantasy: as a mage who is in a far away land with waterfalls. Even when El herself said about this fantasy :” life isn’t like one of your campaigns, you can’t write the ending.” And he proceeds to do just that (re-write HER ending and everyone else's)! Just like the Duffers , Mike didn't see the real her, only a fantasy of her. To them she was just a a symbol of "childhood magic "(like the characters in Mike's childhood game). Ick. Mike also doesn’t move on like everyone else , and the party seemingly drifts apart and he’s alone like he always feared. He never becomes "Mike the brave" in the finale either ,unlike Holly the heroic or even Will the sorcerer who said he'll no longer be "afraid". And Mike is left with "regrets", that he said he wanted to prevent. How weirdly (and unintentionally) bleak for a self-insert character? Divorce get to you Ross?

Having an open ending can theoretically work. But if El dying and El surviving both have GAPING PLOT HOLES. It's just poor writing.

Have almost all the character spy and stalk a love interest. Jonathan using the camera on Nancy , Lucas using binoculars to spy on max, Steve spying on a girl he was into in s3 with binoculars, El /Max spying on Mike & Lucas after their breakup Aka: stalking for love trope.

Why did the characters spying on one another parallel the hyper-surveillance of the us gov, or the spying of the mindflayer? Duffers probably: "no reason, we just do parallels for fun with no deep thematics behind it." They also had Jonathan throw out Nancy's sweater cause it was pink . SMH duffers’ incel energy unfairly affecting Jonathan’s character. Some aspects of how the women were written were done well. But, sometimes subconscious misogyny seemed to seep through -by the duffers or another writer . Besides Kali/El's endings being evidence of that. Why was Tina "the worst" in the family, when Derick was clearly the menace before his redemption arc? Was it necessary to have the children call Holly a b*tch, strangle her, and throw her down the stairs? I could go on...

It also felt weirdly mean spirited and cruel to have Karen just stay with Ted (and not have a divorce). Especially , when her whole arc revolved around the fact that she was miserable with him. But since the Duffers romanticized problematic relationships, I shouldn’t be surprised that their final message is ‘just suck it up and stay in the miserable marriage’ . Especially if one of the creators is bitter that his wife divorced him (while s5 was being written).

I have mixed feelings about this next one, because they tortured Max for s2-5 . And frankly I would have preferred if Max just broke the curse in s4 , like Will broke the m.f's control in s2. So, I'm glad she got her happy ending in s5 . I get that realistically : her bones healed, and her atrophied muscles healed too (even though they ignored the fact that Max would realistically be on a feeding tube and IV while in the hospital). But , the fact vecna's curse was broken so her blindness is just gone... I'm curious how some other viewers with disabilities felt about this? Lucas even claimed Mike was "blind" because of a girl. So Max being "blind" was possibly a call back. You could argue Max being physically fine in the end is part of the "throwing off the disability" trope.

They play Hopper’s explosive anger as a joke even in the finale (haha, so cute that he’s yelling at Joyce’s son for making a simple camera mistake.) Let’s have Joyce get with a guy with anger issues even though she already divorced a guy who would yell and insult her sons . Hopper had some great characterization even in the finale but they flanderized and tried to make his anger issues comical from s3 and beyond . The way he talked to her in s3 was appalling . Hopper in s3 is made into a male power fantasy : an angry , gun slinger , who was based off of magnum pi and other macho men from that era of tv/film . Joyce doesn’t get with nerdy, sweet, emotionally intelligent bob whose had a crush on her since high school (he is brutally killed looking at her with love ). "Nice guys can't win": all cause the nerdy Duffers didn't pull in high school.

So instead she gets with the macho archetype from the era . Even when Murray in s3 pointed out that Jim reminded her of Lonnie . Why even have him say this if we're supposed to want them together??? Duffers really struggle to write healthy relationships.

Also Hopper (the white burly cop) saying he wanted to "kill" Kali (the petite brown woman) was SO DISGUSTING. The optics were very problematic, especially in today's political climate. And at that point in the story (from Hopper's pov) all she did was call him out for lying . He even insulted her ,to her face, when she tried to calmly talk to him. It was just really awful to watch- especially cause Kali didn't make it in the end.

Have Murray go through military checkpoints, and be the one that drives aid & food into a fenced-in town under military occupation . When Brett Gelman is a racist Zionist who supported the Military siege , occupation, bombing, and blocking of aid and food for Gazans (who have been trapped in a fenced in city since the 1970s) .

And Palestinians outside of Gaza also have to use different roads and go through various military checkpoints unlike their Israeli counterparts (as part of the 70+ year apartheid). Having the kids literally escape the occupying military force by going into tunnels (was a choice when israel uses the fact Gaza has tunnels as an excuse to bomb hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, etc). And having Murray blow up a military helicopter by throwing a grenade (while palestinian kids are often arrested for simply throwing rocks at Israeli tanks is interesting). But, I guess none of these characters are "terr*rists of the state" or get arrested for decades without trial like Palestinians do . Even when the characters in ST actually kill a bunch of soldiers- they're not deemed as "terr*rists". HMMMMMMMM wonder why? Also look how "realism" is randomly gone again (guess it's only important for gay suffering and k*lling off ab*sed women). It could be a coincidence. Or , at best, it's one of the other writers taking a dig at Brett Gelman. As his character isn't from Hawkins, but gets to go through the Hawkins' military checkpoint with ease -unlike the trapped Hawkins citizens . Similar to how Israelies are able to go through military checkpoints in occupied Palestine with ease unlike their Palestinian counterparts) .

And if not, they're using the plight of Palestinian trauma as window dressing for their show (or even worse mocking the people who wanted to boycott s5 due to their 2 actors' comments against Palestine).

In s3, they essentially do cold-war propaganda by making the soviet communists cartoonishly evil (a common media trope in the 80s). All while Erica is used as a conservative mouth piece: who praises American Capitalism . And she is described as a genius "political junkie" (after she claims America is a meritocracy and people get payed based on their contributions to society). Ok... respectfully don't agree with that take tbh.

Ignore the fact that at this exact same time Regan as president popularized "trickle down economics" (otherwise known as Reganomics) : which is the cause of most of our economic issues today . He also cut & reduced funding for many of our social-programs by running on a campaign that used a racist dog whistle against black women .

So yeah, maybe i'm too sensitive and overthinking it (unlike the Duffers, apparently). But having the (possibly) white conservative writers make her say this whole spiel : feels very icky, and a bit tone death given the political climate at that time. Jonathan tbf does an "anti-capitalist" movie in the finale. But it rings hollow, when the stranger things creators are seemingly very pro-capitalist. Down to the obnoxious product placements, the merch, spin off shows/books/comics/food/toys etc. After the finale, the Duffers even started offering a writing class of all things, which is only available through a subscription platform (again cause they can never have enough money apparently). They think : THEY deserve all that money for THEIR contribution to society (don't blow up their ego more, and let them take your money while looking down on you)!!!!

The Duffers claim it’s a show for outcasts but at the end of the day- it’s just a show for nerdy white Incels or men .

It has a veneer of progressiveness, but it isn’t in actuality. They claim the show is against "conformity" but ironically falls into many of the conformist tropes and writing conventions that have been critiqued as harmful for decades. It uses marginalized people and women to get browning points. But, It's not progressive at it's core (it's regressive)! It didn't challenge many of the out-dated (and harmful) tropes we don't want to see in media today. IF ANYTHING THEY BROUGHT BACK MANY PROBLEMATIC TROPES.

You could also argue the show is subtle & insidious : historical revisionism.

A few years ago I’d give them more credit with the symbolism , parallels, music choices, set design, foreshadowing, etc (which usually amounted to nothing). I thought some of the problematic writing was intentional subtext and symbolism for a greater reveal (or that most of these tropes would later be subverted or explained as problematic in the narrative ) . But that finale along with all the plot holes, and poor writing choices, made me question the entire series as a whole. To be fair a lot of redeeming aspects of the show may have been attributable to less famous writers of the show, directors/producers, set designers, costume designers , music composers, etc . Some of the highest rated episodes weren't written by the Duffers (or had other writers reeling in the Duffers problematic elements). The s5 writer's strike probably didn't help. And midway through s5 they got rid of one of their female writers /co executive producers (Kate Tefry) who was involved since s1 .Instead of helping finish s5, she worked on the spin-off play instead (which could explain the nose dive s5 took ):

I also do sort of believe in divorce gate: the conspiracy theory about Leigh Janiak (Ross' ex wife) maybe being a ghost writer. She's a screenwriter and director (who has worked on Ross' other projects).The divorce filing occurred after part 1. Leigh also made the 'fear street trilogy': it was diverse, set in the 90s, had a straight bait instead of a queer-bait, and had the main character save her gf from possession/death. Love was the cure. It also had a bunch of st easterggs down to a bleeding nostril to allude to the supernatural, and staring 3 actresses from ST. Maya Hawke's character even worked at a video store. Leigh complained that "queer subtext is not the same as real representation" and that she despised when writers would do queer subtext but never follow through (explaining it was one of the reasons she made fear street). Hmm. The duffers were also sued for allegedly stealing others' work twice (so I would not be surprised if they stole creative work or ideas from Ross’ wife as well). The first lawsuit, filed by filmmaker Charlie Kessler in 2018, claimed the Duffers stole his idea from his 2012 short film Montauk (after he pitched it to them at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014).The second lawsuit, filed in 2020 by Irish Rover Entertainment, alleged that the show was based on an unpublished script called Totem written by Jeffrey Kennedy, with similarities in plot, characters, and concept art. This lawsuit was settled out of court in 2023.

Regardless of whether those rumors are true . We should not reward or normalize the Duffers writing in Hollywood : they do harmful/regressive tropes and messaging, use easterggs/call backs that have no deeper meaning, and can't complete a story without many plot holes and ret-cons. They even normalized short seasons which take much longer to make! Shows shortly before st's initial airing had 25+ (45 minute) episodes per season . They were created in less time and with similar or better quality. Heck, even the attempt to split short seasons into multiple parts (was also first done by st). That's not even getting into all the rumors/ allegations of the Duffers mistreating their staff...

If the epilogue is actually 40 minutes that opens a lot of possibilities. Hopefully we see Nancy and Jonathan in their respective Universities or careers (growing into their own people). Jonathan has been so parentified his whole lie so I kind of hope he can find himself a bit without having to always take care of his family. Maybe we get to see Steve doing his roadtrip in the Rv like he wanted. Robin & vickie … max & lucas together. Kali & El maybe together and safe in a country with waterfalls (maybe Sweeden). The kids all grown up and on their respective life paths out of Hawkins, etc. If they don't go the cliche route of giving Will a random bf. I wonder if Mike is Will's actual epilogue bf . But I kind of hope we at least have some significant Mike/Will scenes before the epilogue if that's the case.

I can’t put my finger on it . A part of me thinks no one will die cause they’re too afraid to kill anyone . Like either no one dies - or the most useless and unimportant main team member dies -like Murray . Like honestly why is he still here ? 🤣 They may just kill Mr Clarke the second he joins the group : but again can we just kill annoying , loud, and creepy Murray instead please? Also can someone check up on Ted (low key want him to survive more than murray) XD . But again it's possible- no one in the team dies . But in terms of significant characters: I'm a bit worried about Hopper ( 50/50 on him). I'm probably worried for nothing though. I’d hope Joyce wouldn’t have to grow through losing another bf.

another crack theory . A part of me wonders if the gang is already trapped in a collective dream scape and are unaware . It was weird when holly was in the dream scape/memory and said the merry go round was the wrong color. But again - why did the lever at the signal tower change from silver (when steve turned it) to red (when Robin turned it) ? To be honest it might just a set design error -but it was a really strange "coincidence" . Like they’re “missing a part of the puzzle “ and “vecna is still messing with them.” So who knows maybe the gang are trapped in a different collective dream-scape just like the kids , but they haven’t realized it yet? I’m not sure if they could pull that off with only 2 hours left ( but it's fun to speculate).

Theories I think have a slim possibility of happening (but I will throw my computer into a wall if they occur): 😆

- El/ Kali dying, having a tragic end and being trapped in the upside down , or being recaptured by the government in the very end of the show . I think it would be cliche, and undo so much positive writing choices in regards to their characters. And just harm the various recurring (and uplifting & positive) themes and motifs within the show.

-Will having a tragic end or death would also just be cruel and go against the positive themes of 'love and hope conquering evil' that have been illustrated through various characters including Will.

-Will having an epilogue bf (unless it’s Mike). Frankly El being single or having the epilogue bf would make way more sense for her arc and be better and more subversive than the trope of 'gay guy has an unrequited crush on his bff who gets with main girl'. Talked about why such an ending would be way more fufilling for el-here. But we’ll see if they follow through or take the cliche m*leven route.

-The show just going with the cliche route of mileven at a waterfall together . SMH. The show literally compared them to Ted/ Karen in multiple seasons on multiple occasions (you can’t retcon all of that and act like I should be touched with them being end game ) . Stancy was paralleled to Ted/karen (they broke up). Jancy was paralleled to Joyce/Lonnie (they broke up). Don't chicken out cause they're the main pairing. Especially cause we never saw them actually fix any of their issues - they literally still lie to each other in s5 despite the "friends don't lie " mantra . Part of the reason they're still (possibly) together in s5 is cause of Will's LIE about the painting. Mike/El were even compared to brenner /el (and other familial dynamics)-here. Here's the post about certain ships also paralleling their parents' toxic marriages. It would be really weird if they're end game (cause why did these weird parallels exist then?) cowardice to follow through, would be the most likely explanation.

- I do worry and wonder if they’ll find a way to do a cash grab and leave room for a spin off . Like oh no: a few of the sick pregnant women survived the blood transfer of Kali’s . Or… Oh no: the 12 kidnapped kids really did have latent psychic abilities (like Henry said) . Or: since all of Hawkins has been contaminated after the rift was opened - In the future some of the people will have kids who are born with powers . Let’s do another period piece in the 90s / early 2000s next . Yep ! The cycle continues! It’s a never ending stooooooory! Unless they stick the landing of the og show i don't want to see a spin off. I do actually think a spin off is very possible though.

Also her being brought back to just die (would piss me off). Kali will probably challenge El’s world view in some way in s5, like she did in s2 (and El will probably do the same for Kali). I do believe Kali and Jane in the finale leave together . In one of the st novels, Kali fakes an experiment’s death (via an illusion) in front of a gov official , so they could escape the USA and flee the country. I could see the 2 faking their deaths (via an illusion), and going "somewhere beautiful" -finally free of the government. My guess is Sweden since it also has waterfalls (and in s1 they lied and said Jane was Swedish while she was wearing a disguise). The death of the El look alike in s5e1 could be foreshadowing of her faked death. Especially since el has had a fake death in the s1 finale too . (Theoretically) Jane and Kali are the only 2 to really be able to understand each other fully . They’re the only 2 people left who understand what it’s like to be deprived of a childhood , name and reduced to a number, a "monster", an experiment . And they both could be a comfort to one another as they adjust to the normal world. It would be bitter sweet for El to leave the party but certainly better than El sacrificing her life literally .

When most of the team goes into the upside down I do believe vecna or the mindflayer (or whoever the big bad is ) may cause certain members of the party to have nightmares of their worst fears and traumas as a way to prevent the team in succeeding in their plan . Possibly the core 4 boys , Jonathan , Joyce, etc . Maybe Hopper too- we see Kali flash memories of his daughter Sara to try and prevent him from getting physically close to her. So vecna may do something similar to various members of the team (if they get too close to the physical location of the 12 kids). It would be a good distraction if certain segments of the teams are 'out of it' and 'seeing things'. He did something similar in s4.

I also think that this narrative device (of nightmares) may be what officially OUTS Mike to the audience and re-contextualizes past scenes like the snowball ( and shows Mike's past struggles with internalized homophobia to the viewer) . I think Vecna may exploit both Will & Mike's fear of romantic rejection in these nightmares . Mike may also help snap Will out of his nightmare (or vice versa) possibly at the church in the upsidedown. This may be the catalyst for Will admitting the truth of the painting to Mike (if it's not done by El in her talk with Mike). But Will/Mike probably don't get much time to discuss it right then and there (since their friends are currently in danger ). I discussed this whole dream theory in depth here ( this theory is partially based on films said to inspire st plus prior seasons-I get more into it there ).

It appears the original plan was for the 12 kids to be used to create enough energy to make a bridge to merge the dimensions together (similar to the teenagers k*lled to open the 4 portals in s4). But who knows , maybe the kids are partially just a trap to lure Will in: "Do you see them William, the children?" If Vecna is still possessed by the mindflayer - Will trying to get into vecna’s head to puppet him may backfire (possibly leading to the mindflayer repossessing and puppeting Will and using him as a bridge of sorts).

If that’s the case it would mirror x-men 134 which Will name dropped in the first episode of s1 . It was about the dark phoenix saga: where a character is possessed by a cosmic entity (the dark phoenix) and temporarily becomes evil. Also similar to the novel ‘never ending story’ : Bastian is taken over by “the darkness” and temporarily becomes evil. cannon st comic:

If Will’s repossessed I assume Mike and Will's other loved ones will be important to help break the mindflayer’s control of him. In the st play, ‘the first shadow’ , Patty (Henry’s love interest) helped him fight the mindflayers control . And the official play bio compares patty & Henry to Mike & Will. Patty & Henry admitting their love for each other - actually temporarily stopped the mindflayer’s possession of Henry . byler Finale be like: “I don’t know what’s on the other side of this"/ "and we kiss as though nothing could fall and the shame was on the other side" .

I’m still attached to my old crack theory of Will (subconsciously) creating the mindflayer and upside down creatures because of his childhood trauma involving his dad (old theory here ) . In d&d lore, mindflayers are actually from the future , but time travel into the past (which could be an explanation for all the time-travel /clocks refs in ST) . various books/ films referenced in the show could allude to that plot twist of Will creating everything . Let's look at those:

-Jonathan in s2 hands Will "the twighlight zone" film: A subplot in it involves a boy with a bowl cut, uses his imagination powers to create monsters and warp reality. We see the boy first introduced playing arcade games. Like how at the beginning of s2: Will and Co are first seen at the arcade . The boy gets upset after finding a news paper clipping : where someone writes on it, anonomously saying he is a ‘monster’ . Aka like the newspaper, Will found, where someone wrote and referred to him as a “zombie boy”. And this boy also tells a monster (he created) to ‘go away’. similar to Will saying to the mindflayer to “go away”.

-Dustin and susie sing “never ending story” which is literally about a seemingly normal boy named Sebastian (who is from a single parent home) subconsciously making a fantasy world that's being invaded by "the darkness" . The 'darkness' represented the loss of hope/dreams: that only his imagination powers could fix .  Also yes, Sebastian does look like Will (since he also has the signature bowl cut).

-Suzie in s3 is seen reading the novel: 'the wizard of Earthsea' . And starts taking to dustin about "GED FACING THE SHADOW" . The trilogy is about a pre-teen wizard named Ged (who also has a bowl cut). The boy wizard casts a powerful spell, but the spell goes awry and instead he releases a shadow creature! The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged (like the mindflayer possessing Will, and dustin describing the mindflayer as a very old creature ) . But geshner was wrong- the boy wizard accidentally created the shadow monster, and it wasn’t ancient at all. Ged had to face his metaphorical demons so he could take control of his shadow.

-Duffers cited the silent hill videogames as inspo as well: And in s1 Hopper named dropped the character Alessa’s last name. “The bad guys faked Alessa’s death and prepared a substitute body of alessa; and performed a fake autopsy (like Will in s1) . Young Alessa’s latent psychic abilities were triggered and she shrouded Silent Hill in fog and monsters. Many of the drastic changes that befall the town in the game, such as the horrific creatures that come to inhabit it, are conjured from her imagination. The monsters in Silent Hill are deeply tied to the psychological trauma and repressed memories relating to Alessa Gillespie's abusive parents."

The demogorgan in d&d also means the “deep father” which could be symbolic of his abusive dad (so some of the mindflayers traits could also be loosely inspired by Lonnie, and d&d monsters ) . The demogorgan in s1 was symbolically paralleled to Lonnie a lot. And in s2, Will lied and said the mindflayer drawing (which was placed next to his baseball mitt-and therefore connected to Lonnie) was "for a story (he) was writing." Not to mention the mindflayer attacked/ first possessed Will in a baseball field. And Will in s3 even says "he's back" after he uses his dad's bat .

This could be why there’s so many time travel references in ST : the story could be a closed unpreventable time loop : “there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never ending story” . Cough like the rainbow ship Will created. Because Will created the mindflayer it caused Henry to gain powers and become part of 'project rainbow' under Brenner. This leads to Henry eventually becoming vecna - leading to Will being taken to the upside down and the current story. And since (in the play) all the numbers were created via getting blood transfusions from Henry. And since Henry’s blood was altered after he interacted with the mindflayer as a child : it could mean a lot of characters are connected through a time paradox . St was also based on 'the montauk project' which is about time paradoxes and a psychic kid creating a monster from his imagination that manifests into the real world. The s5 teaser also had the song "child in time" play. The UD being stopped on the day of Will's dissapearance may be a hint of Will's bigger connection in the narrative and the upside-down . The clock young Henry looks at , literally says "WILLIAMS" on it (and 2 Williams were later flayed by the mindflayer). Dustin in s3, even handed Will a “forever clock”. And in s1-2, when the monsters appeared we could even hear the sound of a clock ticking. Right before Will sees the mindflayer outside his house in s2, there's even a zoom in on a random clock . And "time after time" plays at the snowball, and it's revealed the Mindflayer was watching the entire thing. Lyric: "I hear the clock tick and think of you... the second hand (of a clock) unwinds. I'll be waiting time after time." Even choosing 12 kids could be symbolic -cause it'd be like a clock . The clock goes in a full circular rotation --like a closed stable TIME LOOP would)!

Owens in s2 even described Will's anniversary effect as "neurological flood gates opening" (like El opening the gates to the U.D). Since El in the lab was being taught how to go INTO people's minds to spy, the void she opened in s1 with the demogorgan may have actually been a thought from someone's mind- Will's subconscious mind. Nancy even theorized in s2 "this thing is like a big brain controlling everything." Maybe subconsciously, it's Will's brain?

In most of the books and films the duffers have referenced: a character realizes they subconsciously created the antagonist & the fantasy world. This allows them to face their metaphorical demons by using their 'mind' to alter the reality of the dream-scape and the monsters that reside there. And thus get a happy ending . In s5, it was Will who "stopped the scary movie" (the hive mind) with his thoughts. And he may do something similar in the finale. I think it would make the most narrative sense for the creator to be Will, but they may just make it Henry or El I suppose.

A small part of me also wonders if Will does temporarily die (like how in s1 they had to do cpr to re-start his heart). Will was later dubbed “the boy who came back to life.” Which was a reference to Harry Potter ( “the boy who lived” ) . Like Will, he had a psychic connection to the evil noseless wizard . Harry also temporarily died but was brought back to life in the finale. And Will is called a "zombie boy" too. Harry also defeated the big bad with "love" and the teamwork of his friends/ found family. Which is a consistent motif in ST too . So even if there's no fake out death: love/team work still saves the day. Honestly with the power of illusions there might be a bunch of fake-out deaths/injuries just to mess with certain characters or the audience.

Birthday gate is a bit hard to pinpoint but I'll try. Will’s bday was supposed to be in s4 but seemed to be forgotten. In s4, murray brought up a mother forgetting her kid's bday. The s4 promotion also had the surfer boy van play happy birthday music. And the ST account posted a birthday cake before s4 was released.And In s2 Joyce brought up Will’s birthday. And in s2 Will even talks about the upside-down with Mike : in front of a "happy birthday" mug. And Will in s2 even has a "sorry, I forget your birthday" card in front of a drawing of "WILL THE WISE" as foreshadowing.

And apparently vecna’s birthday is also on the same day as Will’s? We also have a character named victor creel in ST (and since xmen was reffed in ep 1 by Will , it may be a easteregg to victor creed). Victor Creed in xmen had a habit of traumatizing people on their birthdays. Which is reminiscent of Lonnie who forced Jonathan to hunt and kill a rabbit on his 10th birthday (which caused him to "cry for a week"). Lonnie did this to jonathan so he'd "be more of a man". Since Lonnie already called Will homophobic slurs -and Will is a proficient shooter. (Lonnie may have done similar things on Will's birthday as well to the point Will blocked out or forgot some birthday events in the past) . If Will did have powerful reality altering abilities ...it's possible people are forgetting the day of his birthday: because Will himself wants to forget a birthday related trauma. We already see how repressed memories have been used in s4 for El.

But again... it's just a guess. I do think the forgotten b day may be brought up in a nightmare/hallucination induced by vecna. If my crack theory about Will is wrong. My other guess is , it's the mindflayer/Vecna messing with the memories of his loved ones (since Mike, Joyce, and Jonathan recounting positive memories of their times with Will broke Will from his possession in s2 ). The mindflayer already wiped some of Will’s memories in s2 so it’s possible he does some memory-erasing like that again I suppose ? But , i'll be honest I like my crack theory more (go big or go home). XD

I DON’T believe stranger things is a d&d game but I do think the finale may have Mike ( or Will?) write a book about what occurred . Aka everything happened - but he writes a fantasy/scifi novel titled “stranger things.” I only say this because many movies the st writers cited: have a character write a memoir of their life discussing the events that just took place in the film, And the title of the book was the title of the film the viewer just watched (very meta). Aka one of the characters wrote their story (of what literally happened in the past ). Which is why every episode is titled a “chapter.” It’d be like a memoir ( being passed off as fiction). Mike being the dungeon master (writer of campaigns) could be foreshadowing his future career as a fantasy writer . But Will in s2 also said he was "writing a story" about the supernatural, so it could be Will who is the author (which would go with the whole theme of him creating the ud etc). Some theorists recently stated they think Mike is the one with powers who created everything -given the fact he's the 'dungeon master' and his ability to seemingly predict the supernatural . It's a super cool theory. But, it's hard to say what's meta foreshadowing or what should be taken more literally. Him predicting supernatural events could just be foreshadowing for the season - and or a hint he'll be the writer of "stranger things" the book (but it could be deeper ). I still hope it's Will who created the supernatural (sorry, I know I'm biased XD).