HOLLOWGATE
Tales from 85 isn’t all it appears to be
Just to preface this theory isn’t as much as a plot theory as it is a general premise theory.
Me and many other LovewinsGate / ConformityGate theorists have thought since “Tales from 85” was announced it is likely not a real show. I’ll put a bit more evidence at the end but for now I’ll just provide pictures of some of the ridiculous things associated with the show that are genuinely diabolical for an official Netflix release.
(The quality of merch, The nonsensical descriptors, ridiculous plot points/ low quality posters etc)
So if it’s not a real show, how do I think it’ll go down?
I think it’s going to be “The Hollow”
Now just to clarify before I get started. I am not saying with this theory that the Duffers copied “The Hollow” or even took inspiration from it. I’m just saying this is the best comparison I can think of for what I believe they are going to do.
“The Hollow” is a Netflix Original Cartoon that premiered in 2018. It follows three main animated characters Mira, Adam and Kai, after they wake up in a strange room with no memories of their prior lives.
In this strange world, with monsters, the teens (along with another group of teenagers they make frenemies with), try to remember their past, and find out a way to escape the weirdness.
There’s also the Weirdie (who I think could be similiar to Vecna), as he can make portals/ auditory hallucinations/ holograms etc.
As it turns out in the end, after going through multiple trials and tribulations, the trio end up in the original room they started in. A button appears, the world stays glitching out around them, the push it panicked and…
They wake up, no longer animated, but the real live action versions of them, in front of a studio audience. “Weirdie” turned out to be the host of this show, controlling the narrative the whole time. It was a video game competition show, and they bested the other team.
Now there’s a whole second season but ignoring that I think Tales from 85 will follow the premise of S1. They are in this “animated series” but it turns out the whole time it’s just a Curse they are all under.
Now I’ve not quite decided who’s put them under this yet, as there’s many different theories out there (however the most likely culprit is Vecna/ the Mind Flayer or potentially El). It could also theoretically be Mike/Will (Mike creating the “plots” as the Storyteller and Will (who wants to be an artist) animating it. This would also play into the fact it’s “Tales”.
The Merriam Webster Definition for Tales is: A tale is a narrative or story, often imaginative, adventurous, or a report of real events, sometimes implying it is embellished or not entirely true.
This could also explain why certain details make zero sense. Why would it reuse plot points again and again? Why would it say it’s El’s first time trying French Fries, when we KNOW she did it in literally the first episode. This would only make sense if it’s coming from the perspective of someone who does not know that happened.
Furthermore
I see a lot of people comparing this “monster every episode” approach to “Tales from 85” as a comparison to “Miraculous Ladybug” or “Gravity Falls”. I’d actually like to throw my two cents in and say from what we’ve seen so far, I think it it’s most similiar to “The Hollow”. It even has “demon dogs” sound familiar?? And alleged “Minotaurs” meant to show up.
My weakest bit of proof is this odd piece of apparent media on the Fanon Wiki. Now, before you come at me, I do know what Fanon means, and anybody can edit this. I do think it’s weird though, that the second half of this name is literally the name of the show I’m comparing it to and what came up when I searched “Duffer Brothers Hollow”.
Now back to other evidence that it’s fake in general:
One evidence that I thought to be very interesting is a new character that were meant to be introduced to in “Tales from 85”.
This is “Mr Snow Shovel”. Interestingly, when discussion of “Mr Snow Shovel” started popping up, an old interview of Jake Connelly (Derek Turnbow’s actor) started popping up.
In this interview he is telling us what lines he has to use to audition for “Derek”. He had to use the lines Buzz (the older brother bully) talks about “Old Man Marley” the Snow Shoveller, from Home alone. These lines are delivered eerily, something we’ve not really saw from Derek. We’ve heard more humorous lines from him so far.
Based on “Mr Snow Shovel” in Tales from 85, it possible the lines in “Stranger Things” that his audition was based on, haven’t been delivered yet and will be shown in “Tales from 85”. As a character we were not introduced to Derek until S5. It’s unlikely his entire first audition was based off of a quick cameo in TF85… so he might play a bigger role than we were lead to believe.
The interview is linked here: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRx2ffvT/
I think something quite interesting about the timeline is a lot of LoveWinsGate believers think the Curse was truly placed under them all at the Snowball, when Mike broke his Paladin’s Oath to Will by dancing with El. If this is the case, their weird animated fake series being set RIGHT after the Snowball would make perfect sense, as maybe whoever’s placing the curse can’t reach back any further into their minds
Tudum (Netflix’ official website) also lists the cast odd, with the only person in this paragraph being given a credit is Max’s actor for being in “in your dreams”. (Which obviously is what she’s been in I’m just pointing out the fact it’s a bit of a coincidence)
Anyways there is even MORE stuff that suggests it’s false but I don’t have that all on me and there’s plenty of other threads that explain it better so I’m just going to move on to the Cinema stuff.
So for everyone not aware TF85 releases on Netflix on April 23rd with a cinema premier showing on April 18th.
This is limited, with few cinemas across America having 2 screenings (a 12pm and 3pm). The runtime for this is 55 minutes. People have bought tickets, which means it does have to be real to a certain extent, which is why I think Hollowgate is a good explanation.
It might be releasing in cinemas so that when this plot twist is revealed, they’ll get Live Audiences reactions (similar to the live studio audiences for “The Hollow” watching the game). They can then use this footage to tease at us. This has actually been done already with the original “Finale” so not out the question. It will also hype of the wider audience as people who’ve watched it already can tell the GA something big is coming / reveal the twist so people tune in to watch it. There’s also a mystery piece of merch that will be given out to the ticket holders at the end (I’m hoping it’s to do with the “For Will” merch🤞)
Now regarding the premier it says you’ll be watching the first two episodes, but to be honest, we have no further episode names and what does exists seems very fake (the nonsense episode description for the first ep and current non existent description for the second ep). It seems like these two could potentially be the only two in existence.
Therefore these two might be premiering and THEN near the end, we get a BIG hint or straight up shown that something isn’t right.
It’s also “Not Rated” yet which I find slightly suspicious, here’s what I found on Wikipedia about that. It could mean nothing, just something I noted. I heard rumours it was TV-14 which would be a bit suspicious for a kiddie looking cartoon, but those rumours could also be false
“If a film has not been submitted for a rating or is an uncut version of a film that was submitted, the labels Not Rated (NR) or Unrated (UR) are often used.”
About TF85 being renewed for a second season.. honestly I don’t have a great explanation. HOWEVER Netflix does have a history of renewing TV shows then cancelling them later (think Inside Job), so this renewal could just be to sell the fakeout and make it more believable
Time space between premier/ Netflix release will likely hype up audiences too
So that’s my personal theory on how they’ll reveal to the audience the true nature of the “finale” we got back in January.
I’m not too sure when the true finale will drop, my best guess would be the 10 year anniversary (clues leading up to it however), as due to the “entire DVD collection merch” drop, that is likely our deadline now. This gap between the reveal it’s fake/ true finale will give audiences time to get hyped up again/ theorise before the true finale. And give us one last Stranger Things Summer 🤭
This took me ages so sorry I’ve not proofread it 🫣 Also had to take a bunch of photos out of the post due to limits
Thanks for reading this yapathon, hope to see yall soon!!! 🫶
