#conformitygate proof

Some highlights:

They actually RickRolled us

(along with some other stuff, obviously...)

First up, here are two things you should know:

The 'Henry' hairstyle is used to signify Vecna's influence on a character. It's a neat, slightly long side parting with the forehead showing. (e.g. Karen, Nancy, Dustin and Mike in the Epilogue.)

Orange tones are used to signify Vecna's influence on a scene (all of Season 5 is orange-toned, especially Camazotz + the Epilogue; Will wears orange after entering Vecna's mind)

In a SINGLE SCENE, this guy's hair went from short + messy with no parting -> longer, neater with a side parting and his forehead showing. -> short + messy with no parting again.

When did it start?

In his first talk with Will, Mike's hair is normal and the sky is blue.

Murray opens the trap door. Open sesame!

Mike suddenly stops in his tracks and urgently prompts Will into considering that he has powers like Vecna. From Will's POV, Mike's hair is suddenly longer, neater with a side part - like Vecna. (Directly after the trap door!!!)

Then, the first time that Mike directly compares Will to Vecna, the sky suddenly turns orange.

They keep talking. Cut to Robin in the trap door.

From Robin's POV, Mike's hair is normal, and the sky is blue, not orange (it all looks normal, because Vecna wants Will, not Robin).

It's as though Vecna is influencing Mike somehow, in order to convince Will that he is like him.

This would unfortunately be a genius move on Vecna's part.

Mike is the ONLY PERSON Will would possibly listen to after being compared to Vecna – the guy who is "evil and hellbent on destroying the world" and who literally DESTROYED WILL'S LIFE. Can you imagine Steve or even Joyce telling Will he's like Vecna, and him actually listening? SMILING?!?!?!

Remember, Vecna wants to work together with Will. He said it himself; "We are going to do beautiful things together". By listening to Mike and becoming a Sorcerer, Will fell right into Vecna's trap.

Nancy: “Before he took Holly, Vecna stalked her, but… he didn’t appear as Vecna, he appeared as Henry. As a friend.” Cut to Will. Mike: “...I highly doubt his long-term goal is friendship.”

Vecna isn't using his old tactics. HE'S APPEARING AS A FRIEND. That friend just looks a little... different than usual.

goes in one package with lettergate & mb even loverslakegate

Coz wdym we all love “I miss clouds I miss you” and no one discusses the CLOUDS being byler foreshadowing and waterfallgate which I mention daily and yet no one reacts to it enough!!!

I tag it as “byler waterfallgate”, not just waterfallgate bc milkvans think it is their sign which is bs. So let me introduce you to the theory — it’s even bigger than I thought!

ST seasons structure is based on byler!

S1-S2 both take place in the fall (rainy season, keep in mind), centred around byler, Will has Mike

S3 Mike starts dating El, the season takes place in summer and is SUNNY, Will loses Mike, distance

Although they still have a rain fight, the only thing that connects them to what is real (their love)

Will leaves in s3 finale and writes to Mike:

Post S3 I miss clouds, I miss you

S4 takes part in spring, byler is mostly in DESERT, Cali is extremely sunny, Will has no hope, the end of the season is CLOUDY

S5 BACK TO THE ROOTS! NOVEMBER!

It’s fall time again and Will gets Mike back!

waterfallgate starts: Mike promises 3 waterfalls for ALL of them, and says to El that the story starts and ends with Will (whom he doesn’t have in the so called epilogue yet; +it’s not called “epilogue” in the show)

1 waterfall: cokegate

2 waterfall: pipegate

And right after these two in vol1, in vol 2 Mike says to El that he hopes there’s gonna be “at least one waterfall” — bc there’s only one left!

but we have no waterFALLS in vol2 and 3, except for El, but follow me —

2 waterfalls passed, one left — confirmed by El!

She sees only two, bc we saw two!

And let me remind you: other characters foreshadow byler and not the other way around as byler is a heart of the show! (El foreshadowed byler many times before too)

Shawn Levy promised angsty scene to the post with the rain fight, then he posts it AGAIN right before vol2 to remind us of that exact scene.

Even milkvan’s purple RAIN contained WILL’S words from the van accompanied by QUEER song. With WATER IN ITS NAME. After sunny s3 and DESERTED 🏜️ s4, we have loads of WATER references in s5. After s3 Will missed the clouds!

ISTG we’ll see the real finale, it’ll be cloudy, and IT’S GONNA fucking RAIN! (loverslakegate?)

TLDR: This is intentional.

One of the first things a student learns in an intro to film class is the hiring of a continuity director. Most big studios have up to thirty, let that sink in. This person's job is to make sure EVERYTHING is continuous within the story, and that no details change between scene shoots, such as items or people switching places or staying in frame, blank signs, people acting as if they know they're on TV, etc.

They usually do NOT get credited as this position. They are put under writers, editors, crew, etc. Stranger Things is under Netflix, which means there was an EXTENSIVE continuity scene on set. Netflix cannot risk set mistakes in its biggest moneymaker, and neither can the Duffers. The thing about continuity directors too, especially about thirty of them, is that they do not make mistakes. They are trained to see things as small as a coke can or a chair's slight rotation. They have taken COUNTLESS classes for this.

OMFG and every season they begin with a game to tell you/foreshadow what is going to happen! so that means Derek’s game must be relevant if conformitygate is real !! (please hear me out guys, I kinda cooked with this one)

Games for reference:

S1: boys playing DnD; "The Demogorgon, it got me" and then will actually gets taken by the Demogorgon

S2: playing "Dragons Layer" (about rescuing the princess, reference to finding El) and "Dig Dug" (reference to the tunnels) at the arcade

S3: Although they didn’t play an actual game, the prominent foreshadowers in the place of being a game were the movies they watched at the theatre; "Day of the Dead" (and then later on in the episodes with Robin and Steve, "Back to the Future," but in this context that's just an extra easter egg/parallel that was included). Doing a movie instead of a game may also be a reference to the fact that the kids were "growing up." Essentially, they just weren't interested in playing games, and it was important to the season 3 story line, hence why they wouldn't play DnD with will.

S4: eddies dnd campaign; introduces Vecna for the first time

S5: !!?? The only logical answer would be Derek’s video game !!

Why not "A Wrinkle in Time" ?

Each season, the games they play, (and movie), that are used as a foreshadowing device for the audience are not actively recalled or utilized by the characters in order to directly develop the story line. "A Wrinkle in Time" was actively referenced to help understand the concept of Henry's mindscape, also known as Camazotz, as well s aid the characters who stuck there in figuring out how to escape. "A Wrinkle in Time" was used similarly to how the main party would use DnD knowledge to help explain and break down more complex and unknown ideas and concepts. Ultimately, "A Wrinkle in Time" was used to help the audience understand the new concepts being thrown at them when watching the show, not because it connects to this specific foreshadowing tactic/concept; it does not fit in with any of the previous seasons at all.

They have always been very specific when it came to the games they were playing, movies they were watching, and even now in season 5, the book holly was reading, so why would they just choose an irrelevant game for Derek? This is something they have always made sure to include that seems like something important to the duffers themselves as directors, I highly doubt they would want to break the pattern now.

I personally think this foreshadowing technique really just makes sense after seeing the duffers speak about the show over the years. It kinda suits them as people and writers if that makes sense. It's part of their story telling style and identity when it comes to writing the show.