#conformitygatekeep

I know you're busy reshaping the world for the Mind Flayer, or whatever...

...but you really need to come save your boyfriend.

As you all know, we're now in a 'hotspot' month for potential major CG activity- namely July 11th being the date when Cokegate comes together (the culmination of TF85 S1 being released on April 23rd), July 14th being the date S5 was announced last year, and then July 15th being the 10th anniversary of ST (also Finn Wolfhard's new album comes out on the 10th but I'm gonna be respectful to his art and leave that out of the equation even if I do think it's a 🤨 choice of date)

And even is nothing happens at all this month, personally I'm officially staying on the bus until November 26th (ofc, to each your own 'leaving' date) so this definitely won't be my only time posting about it. But, if by some miracle we do get an announcement for new ST content... be it a 'Side B' or 'Act II' of S5, an interactive film (or films), a S6, some combination of these, whatever... the #conformitygate tag will undoubtedly blow up 😩

But we all love the air of community we currently have here, don't we? Plus I'd personally rather not be grouped with the mouth-breathers (lol see what I did there? 🤭) who claim to have "always believed in CG" when in actuality they've been shitting on it, and us. And I know none of you would want to either. So, I propose we start a new tag we can move to in the event of; we could simply go for #conformitygate og or #cg og (credit to @youaremess for this suggestion in a comment from a while ago), maybe #lovewinsgate og or #lwg og (should the original #lovewinsgate tag also get corrupted), or might I also personally suggest #curiosity voyager (referring to the Easter egg found in TF85)

...or, if anyone has something better feel free to suggest one. (Edit: I'll add them to the tags in this post)

Hey CG fam and others!

I've been struggling with audhd paralysis when it comes to writing lately so lets do this! 

I just finished watching The OA and can't recommend it enough for fellow cg'ers! BUT i cant talk about that right now because tomorrow is the 11th and time hasn't slowed down, apparently it has no plans to (thanks time), so I have to get this out before too much craziness happens. I wanted to lay out some thoughts before the 11th and 15th and make a pinned post of all the Stranger Things theories I've been writing since January. 

Here are my past theories and observations over the last 6 months in reverse order of posting:

Still Watching Netflix YouTube channel release analysis Finale Sync Dark Side of the Abyss Tales from BS/85 M83/ST Observations Tape Thoughts MerchGate/What did that shirt say? Finale/General Observations/Rant Documentarygate before its release (lol i didn't know what i was doing)

When people ask about conformitygate and then act like we're crazy (crazy together yall), I like to point out that we have ground to stand on due to the extensive research I and many others have done over the last 6+ months. I think it's important to show all the different readings/viewings/playthroughs I've gone through since falling into this rabbit hole.  

Stranger Things Consumption List

Shows/videos:

All season multiple viewings One Last Adventure (doc) Tales from 85 West End First Shadow (this is my favorite piece of evidence yall) Behind the Curtain First Shadow (doc) Broadway First Shadow  Beyond Stranger Things (Doc) Something Very Bad is Going To Happen The Boroughs All videos related to ST from the youtube channel Still Watching Netflix The OA The Pizza Movie Wsqk radio station 

Comics:

The Other Side Six Into The Fire Science Camp Holiday Special Erica the Great Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons The Tomb of Ybwen Kamchatka The Voyage Tales from Hawkins Tales from Hawkins 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons: The Rise of Hellfire

Books:

Scripts (Seasons 1-4) Worlds Turned Upside Down  Suspicious Minds (Terry) Darkness (Hopper) Runaway Max Rebel Robin Lucas on the Line The Dustin Experiment  The Starcourt Mall Escape (Nina/Jane bs) Flight of Icarus (Eddie) One Way or Another (Nancy) To Be Finished: Heroes and Monsters (currently reading ⅓ in) Hawkins Horror (currently listening to audiobook 2 hours left)

Games:

1984 Mobile game- Play thru completed Vr watched play thru 2/3rd in playing ST3TG

The more I “consume” the more I:

See that lies of omission are abound and are an underlying theme for all our heroes

Am positive that we are seeing multiple (at least 3) timelines playing out in the show

FEEL IT'S HELLA SUS THAT WILL AND MIKE HAVE NO BOOKS (which are all first person narratives) 

Believe that this month we're probably going to get the netflix first shadow play trailer or, if we're lucky (which i tell myself we're not so it wont hurt as bad lol) the play will drop. I think this version will be different, resulting in a third version of the play.  

Think that the "a or b side" of season 5 might come out this year following the structure of last year's release with maybe films to finish. Idk but the pull of the 11th anniversary next year is too strong to ignore. 

See that Brenner is probably the main villain via mind control/Nina project; distorting and recreating memories (I'm looking at you ai and the Backrooms)

Am convinced that this real ending will be an event to show how human creation can rival the tide of ai garbage currently sweeping the entertainment world.

I love the community this has given us and I look forward to finding so much more together on this curiosity voyage.

Also this dropped today and im like. . . Hey merchgate i see you. . . Game over with no Jane 🙄 sureeee. Come on Mike and Wake Up!

If we only look at the connection between pineapple and New Coke, their biggest link is Stranger Things.

Both became part of real-life Netflix marketing campaigns. For Season 3, Netflix brought back the original 1985 New Coke with Coca-Cola. For Season 4, they partnered with Walmart to sell Surfer Boy's Pineapple Jalapeño Pizza.

A lot of suspicious pineapple-related ads have been appearing lately, and some of them are connected to the show.

There’s also National Piña Colada Day on July 10, which is just one day before July 11, the day Coca-Cola announced the return of the original Coke formula as Coca-Cola Classic in 1985.

I know it might be a reach... but in this fandom, we question everything.

Beyond the marketing, I think they might also be paralleling each other in the story. Lucas defends New Coke, saying that just because something is new or different doesn't mean it's bad. Tales wasn't actually that bad either.

Mike does the opposite with pineapple pizza, calling it "gross" at first because it isn't considered normal, but after trying it, he admits he likes it.

i hate it though and i still hope we'll get at least smth in july

It came with 5 sticker packs and a special season card (I got S3 which made me mad but it's wherever- S3 is my least favourite season after S5).

It came with 5 sticker packs and a couple extra stickers inside and a poster.

The book is seperated into a few sections:

S1 - Mike's POV (using diary entries and notes)

S2 - Will's POV (using diary entries and notes)

S3 - Dustin's POV (using diary entries and notes)

S4 - Lucas' POV (using diary entries and notes)

After each season, there's a small section (about 2 pages) with a different theme.

After S1 - Retro Tech (walkies, AV club, Cerebro, computers, radio, corded and cordless phones)

After S2 - The Arcade (the games and Mad Max)

After S3 - Dress Code 80's (the different hairstyles, RinkoMania)

After S4 - Dungeons and Dragons (Hellfire, Fireball)

After the D&D section, there's a really strange part about season 5. They have stickers for it but all of it seems kinda like an unsolved murder case if that makes sense? There are tons of newspaper clippings, a character page, and really creepy upside down stuff.

And on the last page, it says:

"November 6th.

The day all this started-

is the day it ends."

Which could be a nod to S5 starting on November 6th but it could also be a hint for the new content coming out on November 6th.

Also there are some really cute notes written by Mike in the S1 section when he talks about the party and I'll show them in part 2 (hopefully).

Note: the poster is double sided.

First off, why does the poster look like a theatre production 😭 istg I've seen the exact same style of poster used to promote TFS.

Also Henry Creel as Vecna??? Hellooooo Vecna being Henry's alter ego which is controlled by the Mind Flayer??? Anyone??? No? Okay.

Also, why does it say "One Last Strange Adventure" LIKE HUH??? OH SO YOU'RE ADMITTING THE ENTIRE SEASON WAS BIZARRE ASF AND MADE NO SENSE, RIGHT RIGHT.

Also, while I was going through the stickers and sticking them into the book, I noticed that the captions didn't always correctly match the sticker.

This isn't when El/Jane confesses she opened the gate; it's when Mike leaves her after finding Will's fake body in the quarry. She goes to the woods and lets out her frustration. They literally could've used the group hug from on top of the quarry. The one with Dustin, Mike and El/Jane.

This is a demogorgan. Not a demodog, which is what attacked the soldiers in the tunnels when the shadow monster was using Will as a spy.

Note: I don't have all the stickers needed to complete the book but I'm sure there are other inconsistencies like this across the book.

There's also weird stuff on the posters and other bits of the book, and I'm going to make a part 2 to break those down.

I can't help but wonder if the inconsistencies are intentional because there are so many moments where we know something is off but we brush it off as being nothing. I think that this meta narrative is something we should pay more attention to because I wonder if we can find out when/how ST actually ends and when it comes out by following along with their crazy narrative.

I'm going to look into these strange coincidences a bit more and hopefully update soon <333

Anyways I'm calling this stickergate because stickerbook -> stickergate 😁💛💙

Stickergate <333

EPCOT logos 🤪