can you keep a secret without telling a lie? 💫

[ p.1, p.2, p.3 + visual erasure of Will in s2 ]

Jonathan seems to be a character created by the Lab to give Will a brother. Jonathan could be visually based on David Bowie and performing tasks of supporting him and also introducing Will to music, which would keep Will in the simulation.

(although I’m not sure that he as Jonathan acknowledges it, and probably is genuinely living in Nina and loves his ‘brother’)

But Jonathan isn’t just an empty hologram.

(meanwhile, notice how the colour palette of Jonathan’s room, including the Bowie shot, duplicates in Will’s t-shirt)

…Have you ever wondered why we love Robin so much?.. Why she is such a good friend to Will? Why she has basically substituted Jonathan for him? Why is she so good in music and even knows what Will would like, barely being acquainted to him?

(we’ve known for a long while that Holly is Mike, and who knows who’s Max atp, but Ig, this door also has a lock on it)

my og post with 👆 visual analysis + @beaulesbian meta finds

Robin is good at music like Jonathan, Robin likes Nancy like Jonathan, Robin is Will’s support like Jonathan. Robin knows the kids. Bc Rockin fucking Robin IS Jonathan.

So like it’s like a full operation break-out with other people trying to help (because I love the idea of people trying to break them out so much!)

So like, they’re all real, it’s just that for instance Nancy, Steve, Mike (I also theorized that the Wheelers are Creels and Brenners!) are connected to people who work at the lab (Karen, Ted), they want to break out Robin, Jonathan, and Will from the rainbow room. Something like that, so that like, all of the… so it’s like the MK Ultra people, the kids, the parents, the people who work with the lab, etc all fighting to break people out but also getting shit fucked up along the way and they are lost and can’t tell who’s who and what not.

Here is part 1.

I just found this scene from S2 and remembered my post about how Mike fills in for Dustin a bit in S5.

They completely altered the scene where Dr. Brenner gets attacked too😭

I made an edit where I play each version separate and then play them in sync with one another, and then again in slow-mo. The VHS Edition actually prolonged the scene and I had to cut part of it in the beginning to make it sync up properly‼ Just FYI.

Please note The 1st/top clip is always the standard/original version and the 2nd/bottom clip is always the VHS Edition version. I had to put the video in 2:3 Portrait mode to fit the clips properly.

(I tried to lower the volume on the clips since Tumblr loves to jump scare you with loud audio)

but please watch this and tell me what you see. Because I see a difference in both versions. In the original release, the demo moves in to the frame slanted and it's back is completely curved & it also moves more quickly.

S1E8 (timestamp 15:48)

Regular version vs. VHS special edition:

Regular version: The demogorgon puts its arm on whatever's on the ground there and opens its mouth.

VHS version: The demogorgon just stands up and stands there.

The audio seems to be the same in both versions.

Another difference.

Regular version vs. VHS special edition:

Regular version: It looks like there's UD membrane, and the ceiling is cracking.

VHS version: It looks like the ceiling itself is more membrane-like.

There's also a white line on the screen right before this all happens.

OKAY Y’ALL!!!!!

My first ~major~ find on the VHS Season

I know everyone is talking about the white lines, but LOOK HOW MUCH OF THE DEMOGORGON you can see in the background in this shot! That’s CRAZY! I’m going to reblog with the original clip just for comparison!

JK it won’t let me repost with it!

Electromagneticgate we are so here! I don’t know what it means at all yet, but it’s so interesting because I wonder how this will work when we get to the actual clip of the Shadow Monster on the VHS-C but we’re watching it on VHS or on VHS-C (because VHS-C was out in 1984). Will it disappear…? Are the true monsters, more visible on VHS?

I mean, they are shown to interact with tapes, and now we are getting the VHS tapes. VHS tapes work by having analog signals (different from like radio signals but still signals) encoded onto them, and then the VCR basically decodes them into a format that is visible on your screen.

Even the damn NOISE from a VHS tape looks like the starry sky backgrounds in the show…

Remind you of anything…?

Lastly, putting the date on a VHS is a manual recording option… Will, you smart boy!

Worth noting, this DATED tape is also the one the lab confiscated… 🤨🧐

Some of the ones Brenner has are dated, some are not.

Removing height would also likely, get rid of these dates! *we need more height!*

This is making me wonder about these end shots again, the black and white.

Lastly, the consumer … VHS (video home system) is a consumer-level analog tape recording 👀

So we have… Lonnie “the Hawk” Hawkins

AND Ronnie “the Hawk” Hawkins

And… we have a Rockin’ Ronnie (Ronnie Hawkins)

and a Rockin’ Robin (Maya Hawke)

What the fuck is going on LOL

Lucas - Everyone

Max - Lucas, Jane

Jane - Max, Lucas, Dustin

Dustin - Lucas, Jane

Will - Lucas, Mike

As I’ve previously outlined in the following post:

I think that the Upside Down is basically working a conduit to access future technology/scientific advancements (from OUR timeline).

The lab is opening gates to access future technology that it can experiment on for mind-control experiments, military operations, and general control of media / culture. The lab is doing this for control, and spinning a narrative based on how the kids/town already understands the world. Therefore, Vecna and the Mind Flayer are a representation of this knowledge being used for control, conformity, and manipulation. Also, how people in the past would make sense of current technology.

But the characters also go into the Upside Down, and Will has interactions with the Shadow Monster. Henry also has interactions with the Shadow Monster… I think the Shadow Monster is the representation of what this future technology could be used for, if it was in the hands of the people.

So, the Shadow Monster act through people in the town, but also primarily targets people with control and power THROUGH these people. A lot of these people… are also queer-coded as fuck.

Again, the characters going into the Upside Down would also give them access to some of the concepts outlined above. But this might be a cool explanation for all of the queer-coding, and how it has an even deeper meaning than we think. As in the queer-coding is even a function of the plot, and required to understand the plot itself. Really putting the coding in queer-coding, and really bringing queer stories from the subtext to the text of the story.

Just a sneak-peak of the website… it’s artistic, political, etc., advocating for incorporating a more human focused view of technology.

(the Shutter Island, The Truman Show and Fight Club)

Do you remember a theory that Hawkins got flayed in the end of season 2? I believe we have corrupted memories earlier (most likely from the very beginning of the show, but that’s story for another time). Let’s check this one out.

The first thing that stood out to me was this shot:

Dr Owens opens the door, and the scientist starts “working” immediately. He was not working, when the door opened, he started at the same moment. This jumped out at me as if it was staged, and no one was indeed working there until Nancy and Jonathan entered the room. It gave The Truman Show immediately, and I rewatched the whole sequence… a dozen times.

The sequence starts with this shot:

Here we see just Jonathan, and it would be fine, if only I didn’t feel weird by the way the next shot separates Jonathan from Nancy: we see just him in the mirror, which is okay for thing angle, but something still feels off… For example, the fact that Jonathan in the mirror is not Jonathan in the room. The mirror is fake!