What’s Mike afraid of?

It went from X-Men Uncanny 269 to X-Men 134. This sent me down a rabbit hole (I'll come back to the above at a later time point)

X-Men 134 is the start of the Dark Phoenix saga. Not only was this foreshadowing El's season 1 death, but it's also foreshadowing of both the Hellfire Club and Vecna, all as early as episode 1!

It also referenced the character of Jean Grey, who notoriously cannot stay dead in the X-Men universe, and like El, has similar telekinetic/telepathic powers. Her first death was in #138, in a fight against Hellfire Club and an illusionist called Mastermind (sound familiar...?)

bonus point: Will in the end credits being referred to as an illusionist... hmmm

So they like to subvert expectations, and so instead of making the Hellfire Club antagonists (as in X-Men), they characterised HC as a club of misunderstood D&D players...

Then, Eleven's death parallels Jean's first death almost exactly...

lol spot the differences

However, unlike Jean, El did not going on a cosmic genocide that would explain her apparent self-sacrificial suicide...Why subvert the expectations when it comes to Hellfire Club, but follow Jean's death beat for beat, especially when it has been mocked for the subsequent retcons that establish that Jean didn't actually die in that scene?

Not only is the void scene satiricial (which in and of itself likely implies that El will be coming back because Jean is incapable of staying dead), they totally make fun of the retconning of Jean Grey back to life in the comics, in the Duffers' post-finale interviews.

The whole 'Is El dead or alive?' spiel is essentially parodying the same discussions for Jean Grey:

It's giving:

Not only that, but Finn himself poked fun of the notion of ST retconning storylines, and I can't help but feel that this also is to make fun of Jean Grey's arc, and how the writers couldn't stick to the story they wanted to tell:

Besides the fact that Jean later came back to life, they also went back to the original #138 issue where she 'died', where they released the 'original version' of the story, and the 'original ending', where they gave Jean a 'psychic lobotomy' (lmaoooo)

Soooooooo - have I restored some faith back into the community yet?

There is actual a lot more from the pilot that needs to be discussed, but I dont have the time/energy for that at the moment.

EDIT:

THIS MAN KNOWS SOMETHING WE DON'T!!!

Running up that Hill by Kate Bush

The B side - Under the Ivy

It’s very much a song about someone who is sneaking away from a party to meet someone elusively, secretly, and to possibly make love with them, or just to communicate, but it’s secret, and it’s something they used to do and that they won’t be able to do again. It’s about a nostalgic, revisited moment. (…) I think it’s sad because it’s about someone who is recalling a moment when perhaps they used to do it when they were innocent and when they were children, and it’s something that they’re having to sneak away to do privately now as adults.

~ Kate Bush, 1985

The lyrics:

It wouldn’t take me long

To tell you how to find it,

To tell you where we’ll meet

This little girl inside me

Is retreating to her favourite place

Go into the garden.

Go under the ivy,

Under the leaves,

Away from the party

Go right to the rose

Go right to the white rose

(For me.)

I sit here in the thunder,

The green on the grey

I feel it all around me

And it’s not easy for me

To give away a secret

It’s not safe,

But go into the garden

Go under the ivy

Under the leaves

Away from the party

Go right to the rose

Go right to the white rose

(For me)

It wouldn’t take me long

To tell you how to find it

so an elder brain is depicted as living in a pool of brine water correct? like a puddle of salt water. (i had that wrong - i thought it was like immersed in a tank of water but it sits on the surface of the pool. this is like the isolation tank and the void at the same time.) in real life, a brine pool is an underwater lake of highly-concentrated saltwater at the bottom of the ocean. alright so above the upside down is the sunny, arid abyss right? but if the upside down is the ocean, then the brine pool would be at the bottom. that's where the elder brain is!

the abyss was the complete opposite direction. it was totally the wrong way! they need to go down deeper. not up.

They say that Hop found him in an abandoned cabin

It's in the cabin that they burn the Mind Flayer particles out of him

It's there that Will reveals that he's still connected to Vecna

And they take him there again in S5

Elder Brains are stored in brine pools.

The thing above Hawkins Lab reflects like pool water at night.

Elder Brian's have access to memories.

This is the characters inside the Mindflayer making one Elder Brain. Minus Creel, big scary guy, Lucas, who is aware and choosing to stay, hello Dimitri in Russia plot line, and Erica, who was smart enough to avoid getting caught.

Meaning somewhere the characters are all in their own baths. In fact, I bet all of Hawkins are in baths. It would allow the Elder Brain to maintain safety, keep the military away, give Hopper his job back no questions, let Jonathan go to school, Nancy have her dream career, Steve to get what he desires, Lucas gets his love story, Max does not need to be disabled, Dustin gets to attend college, and Mike gets to marry Jane. A fairytale ending at the price of the water supply. Because the Abyss just happens to not have water, and that's the future if the Elder Brain and Vecna continue down this path.

With that said. What if a character woke up and realized they were under water? How would they locate the others?

Sonar.

What if this is the wave, is a sonar wave, from the future, the epilogue we saw. Using the Elder Brain water against the Elder Brain. Sending out a sonar wave to the past because their friends are lost on the other side of the wall.

Who is meant to tear down the Wall?

There are surveillance cameras throughout Hawkins?

(x image credit to @lilialunaa)

Which looks awfully similar to the surveillance camera footage we see in the lab (s2e8).

And within the first two minutes of the show, we see the lab, multiple surveillance cameras (this shot is held for like 12 seconds btw), and one of those stalker shots.

I fear we've been in the Truman Show this entire time.