willbyershaspowerswarrior

AU where paladin!mike gets dragged into the canon verse when will’s powers awaken

AU where paladin!mike gets dragged into the canon verse when will’s powers awaken

the paladin and the sorcerer

for @andiwriteordie’s birthday!!

As I alluded to in my previous post, I consider Will and Henry’s shared history and assault at the hands of the Mindflayer to be their most crucial tether. Additionally, I speculated that Vecna is likely subservient to the Mindflayer as a continuation of his history of victimisation, both in debt to the Mindflayer for his supernatural abilities but also taken advantage of to facilitate the Mindflayer’s personal goals.

What I find most striking about the Mindflayer is the recurrent imagery of assault associated with it with the obvious example of Will’s encounter on the field in season two and his graphic recounting of the event, emphasising the physical sensation of the attack.

Considering that the utilisation of subtext is intrinsic to the show’s methodology of conveying its darker themes, this direct correlation between assault and the imbuing of supernatural powers seems important, potentially in regard to deciphering the origins of Will’s powers.

Although the Duffers have described Will’s powers as originating from Vecna, ‘siphoning’ his abilities and channeling them through his connection to the hive mind. However, this directly contradicts the words of Mike who repeatedly describes Will’s powers as ‘innate’. Although there is wiggle room for potential meaning that doesn’t suggest that Will’s powers are ‘natural’ in the manner that El or Vecna’s are, if this was indeed their intention, to so heavily emphasise such a specific word seems like a misstep if you want to convey to your audience that Will’s abilities are not akin to the lab kids. Why couldn’t they have used different terminology? A different word?

(This isn’t even mentioning the implications of the classification of sorcerer in DnD, indicating an ‘innate’ magical ability typically derived from an external force but is regardless a natural ability which does not require extensive training for one master, something which is eerily similar to the likely nature of Will’s abilities. I don’t play DnD myself so I’d rather not go off the deep end into a topic I know very little about, not to mention the mindfuck of different editions of DnD and the specifics of how sorcerors functioned in the 1980s in comparison to modern editions such as DnD 5e, but it’s still something to keep in mind.)

Furthermore, their explanation doesn’t appear to align with the established mythology of how one gains powers in this show. As established in season four, Brenner used blood transfusion to extract Henry’s mutated DNA and transferred it to the mothers of the lab kids, thus reproducing Henry’s psychic abilities.

This is obviously not how Will how unlocked his abilities, instead tapping into an already established psychic connection with the hive mind, directly clashing with the established lore of the show and now introducing an additional method of gaining supernatural abilities, completing upending the audience’s previous expectations. Although the Duffers do love their plot twists, the lack of internal continuity is striking and I’ve already made clear that I am doubtful of their claims that Will’s powers are supposedly not innate.

I explain all of this as to suggest that the origin of Will’s abilities may not be so cut and dry and that there may be further revelations to come.

Returning to the Mindflayer, it is clear that it is the true origin of supernatural abilities in the show’s universe (at least as it pertains to our main cast) with the Mindflayer gifting Henry his powers which he then passed down to El and the other lab kids. The Mindflayer is the source. But unlike El or Kali, it is only Will and Henry who have had direct contact with (or rather assaulted by) the Mindflayer and been irrevocably changed as a result. This leads me to posit that their connection may not end with this shared trauma but also a shared mutated genetic code - all thanks to the Mindflayer. However! I do not believe that Will gained his abilities during the events of season two as Vecna took interest in him long before this. Rather, I believe that just as Henry’s first encounter with the Mindflayer wasn’t when he was banished to the Upside Down in 1979, Will’s first encounter with the Mindflayer wasn’t during his assault on the field.

Notably however, I do disagree with the notion that the cold open of season five is the moment in which Will gained his supernatural abilities as if this reveal was intended as a twist, would it not have made more sense for this scene to have been kept for a later episode? Furthermore, if this was indeed the moment he gained supernatural abilities it would frankly leave a sour taste in my mouth considering that trend of powers being used as a metaphor for one’s sexuality, thus making an uncomfortable correlation between Will’s queerness and his assault by Vecna. This scene will most definitely be re-contextualised but potentially for very different reasons. Alternatively, this may have been when Vecna established his psychic connection with Will and thus to the hive mind (something which is distinct from the Mindflayer and its particles as I specified in my previous post.)

The theme of blood and injury has become more than prevalent in season five but was also foreshadowed in the previous season.

For this reason, I suspect that this theme will intertwine with Will’s story eventually, likely in a reveal of his mutated blood type. Potentially in an investigation of Hawkins Lab as per Dustin’s devastation at how everything they’ve ever assumed about the Upside Down has been -

Why I opt for this explanation over others such as twelvegate or the possibility of Will being born with supernatural abilities (without influence of blood transfusion during gestation) is due to how much they dramatically threaten the cohesion of the show’s already established lore, which is the exact reason I am dubious of the Duffer’s explanation of Will’s powers. Will having a yet to be revealed initial encounter with the Mindflayer explains the true origin of his powers, maintains the internal logic of the show, and further strengthens the parallels between Will and Henry.

As Will says himself:

Personally, the only logical conclusion to the relentless paralleling between Will and Vecna is that they’re more than just eerily similar: they’re two sides of the same coin. Their histories are direct mirrors of one another’s and that is precisely why Vecna took such a liking to Will - the identical trajectories of their lives.