#chessgate

These are two parallels from EP7 of S4 and S5. I just realized that Will’s coming out scene happens on a checkered floor, which makes all the characters look like players on a chess board.

One, aka Henry, aka Vecna, aka Mr. Whats It, manipulates Eleven to conduct the massacre at Hawkins Lab during a game of chess. The piece he steals from her is a knight on A6, just like the 6th of November, the day of Vecna’s plan to collide worlds. Mike’s D&D character is a paladin, aka a holy knight.

This sets up that Vecna’s grand plan involves stealing Mike, the brave knight, from Will in order to manipulate him, and everyone else, so he can win. Mike is so getting Vecna’d or targeted (again), and to hint it here during Will’s coming out scene? It has to be about Byler and toying with Will’s love for Mike.

By the way, “endgame” is originally a chess term, as in checkmate. Lucas says “that’s endgame” when he, Robin, and Mike talk about Will being trapped in Vecna’s mind, knowing his secrets, and Mike saying he’ll “stay with Will,” in the same location, on the same checkered floor.

THE WHOLE SET IS A "BYLER ENDGAME" JOKE. OMFG.

if I'm concealing

not only love

all other feeling

@biigiiiii s post abt the floor being a chess board while theres 12 people on it reminded me of the chess scene in s4 between el and henry and i think it might be foreshadowing. And since henry has decidedly chosen 12 children specifically, it feels like a big game of chess, and im very curious about which chess pieces could be assigned to the characters since it could signify their individual roles in the game, and could prove valuable in predicting deaths (el takes one of henrys pieces and henry takes one of els). So if anyone is very knowledgable in chess id love to know what pieces get taken off the board in this game and what character you think this corresponds with.

Now i think what henrys saying in this scene could be applied to a number of characters, but for the sake of conformitygate im going to show how it applies to Mike

“He and the others are going to attempt to kill you”

Going off conformitygate, if mike is in camazotz/a trance/a vision, his body is vulnerable and he could be killed (like vecna was going to kill max). I think this theory could only work under the assumption that it is solely mike in this vision, while el, kali and max are also possibly in henrys mind and can access the vision this way. Bcs it doesnt feel like a personal attack on mike if EVERYONE is in the vision with him. Im not sure on this tho.

“Papa wants it to happen and has been planning it for some time”

“Theres a reason why the security cameras were turned off”

(The audience is being shielded from the actual reality—the cameras being “turned off”)

In s4 when nancy is talking about her vision, she talks about a creature with a gaping mouth, which shows up in s5. However, she also mentions an ARMY of monsters that does NOT appear in the final battle alongside this creature.

“You frighten him. He knows youre more powerful than the others and that he cant control you”

Mike is continously figuring out vecnas plans and empowering his friends, which threatens vecna bcs he thrives on targeting peoples vulnerabilities and fears, however, this does leave mike more vulnerable because he is still not addressing his own vulnerabilities and fears

“Thats all he wants. Control.”

Henry’s version of an orderly, satsifying world:

“It is why you must escape. Today. But they are watching us closely.”

Bear with me, but maybe el and kali somehow faked their deaths so they could trick vecna. Maybe they knew they were still in henrys mind and not back in reality.

Kali is the only other person that can distort reality so i think if anyone can sniff out a fake reality its her. I dont think kali would underestimate henry—she knows he’s clever and she has said that els friends’ plan wont work. I think she has a much more elaborate plan. Kali is also known to have known henry best, so maybe she knew he’d know about their plan to sacrifice themselves and maybe that was never actually kalis plan. Maybe they just needed to make vecna think it was so they could escape camazotz without suspicion. They needed vecna to believe their plan so they needed to draw from a real concern—the military using them to create more programs. And maybe they still do actually plan to end their lives afterwards, but i think when it gets to this point they have to be proven wrong—they need to have an alternative to live safely. This whole part im really not sure of because i havent given it much thought at all, but i think there’s just definitely more going on with kalis plan.

“It is time you are free from this hell”

This isn’t very fully formed so I’d love to hear more thoughts to add to this!!!

I have suspected for a long time that Mr Robot has had a lot of influence on some of the aspects of stranger things. I may be proven right…

(For context, he has DID. He is playing this game against himself as a way to try and push mr robot out/to try and gain full control)

Bob uses Lover's Lake to free Hopper from the Upside Down tunnels in S2. In S4, El escapes the rainbow room memory maze after remembering love conquered fear. In S5, the lake which represents love is hidden behind a wall that has signal interference from tampered airwaves. So how do they get through? Remember.👇🏻

Argyle, the stoner, is also the name of a checked diamond pattern. He wears checked sleeves and works for a pizza company with a checkered design. This pattern is associated with chess and the plot of Alice Through The Looking Glass, where Alice must play chess backwards in order to wake up.

He gives Mike advice on what to eat, and holds up "some kind of mushroom" in the end. The song White Rabbit began the show with the lyrics, "Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call," like the call to action, "try before you deny… feed your head."

When Max wakes up from her coma/trance, there are these two interesting details. One is the red crate above her head in the frame, which Robin used as a metaphor for Vecna's mind (in the same episode). The other is the red book under the boombox. On the spine, it says "Speed Queen." Speed, as in, Max's self-titled role in D&D, "Zoomer." And Queen, as in, the Red Queen, Alice's chess opponent, who if the party save, it would be "Checkmate" or "Endgame" to defeating Vecna (or to losing). The red book signifying her color. I made another post explaining chessgate and the show's Through The Looking-Glass connection.

Further proof is the idea that Max is present in the final D&D game, despite not being interested in playing beforehand. This is significant as the Red Queen is there at Alice's finale banquet before she "wakes up." Keep in mind, the Red Queen in the book is not the Queen of Hearts like the 2010 film. Instead, she is Alice's strict, bossy tutor who teaches her how to "go backwards" to win, like how Max teaches Holly to travel through Vecna's mind. The character turns out to be a black kitten in the book after Alice wakes, and Max's binder is black (with a cat on it?). Both Holly and Mike represent Alice ("you are your brother").