#memorygate

It's the perfect theory. It explains why certain characters act inexplicably out of character or aren't present when they should be.

Alright. I’m going to put together everything I’ve observed myself and seen on here into one final mega theory on memory loss. 

Vecna is screwing with both us, the viewers, and the memories of the whole party. 

The first place this really sticks out is in the coming out scene. Will says some things that are really odd. Number 1: One of the memories was something about the party getting malts at Melvald’s. Melvald’s is a general store where Joyce works. They don’t  sell milkshakes. But in the 50s, it was a restaurant where Henry and Patty went. Number 2: he mentions enjoying getting lost in the woods. He definitely did not enjoy that—last time he was in the woods he got kidnapped! Number 3: the Tammy thing. We’ve consistently been shown for the last five seasons that Mike is NOT Will’s Tammy. He has several parallels with Vickie, including this one

And this one 

And this one (Vickie paces, Max remarks that Holly is pacing just like Mike).

—plus Mike is obviously way way more than a hallway crush as they’ve had a deep and special friendship since forever (Mike telling Will that the first day he met him was the best day of his life), and a literal DAY ago Will was looking for signals to date him. Will is not himself.

But it’s not only Will’s memories being screwed with. Mike starts calling Joyce by her first name instead of Ms. Byers in volume 2, despite having called her Ms. Byers in vol 1. We know from previous seasons that Mike is mouthy and distrusts authority figures, but he sincerely respects the ones he likes and cares about the opinion of, like Joyce. This is pretty out of character. Also out of character is his sudden unwillingness to touch will, pulling his hand back when Will is thrown to the ground in e5 and his hand twitches awkwardly as he stands by Will’s bedside in e6. Now, this could just as well be a sign of Mike going back to repression mode after being overloaded with signals, but in S2, the only part of Will that remains free from the Mindflayer’s possession is the hand that Mike held during the crazy together basement scene. Their love is that powerful—remember Max saying all she needed was Lucas, and that the connection was broken the first time not because the music shut off but because he took his hand of hers? Yeah. That’s why Mike can’t touch Will yet. Another huge thing is the adults’, especially Joyce’s, lack of memory. They forgot his birthday. She can’t remember how old Will was when he went missing. Neither she nor Hopper remember that they LITERALLY WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL with Henry, and they + Bob Newby were partly responsible for having his dad arrested for the murders. That’s huge. That’s not something anyone just forgets. Vecna is playing them like they’re all pawns in his game, and he’s several steps ahead. 

And what do we know about the importance of love from The First Shadow? It’s everything. Brenner causing Henry to lose Patty (whom Mike canonically parallels!)

is what ultimately weakens him mentally enough to let the Mindflayer possess him, driving him towards evil. Forcing Will and those around him to lose important memories of and with, especially Mike, is exactly what Vecna wants. Without strong reciprocated platonic, familial, and romantic love, he will lose. He’s already slipping away. 

Part two of this theory is the references to other films. We know the duffers love to reference their favorite movies all the time—plus, they shared that giant whiteboard of film and show inspirations. Both these movies were on that board. 

First we have this No Way Home parallel. For those who don’t know, No Way Home ends with Peter Parker being forgotten by everyone. Will wears this fit early on in the season, and Mike supposedly wears this shirt in the epilogue. This is memory loss plot reference 1.

Second is all the references to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. We once again have the costume parallel—

(Which also explains the ridiculous beanie.) but we also have more plot references. In Eternal Sunshine, Joel and Clementine undergo procedures to erase each other from their memories after a breakup. The place they first meet is Montauk, and after Joel realizes that he doesn’t want to erase Clementine and the memories are crumbling all around him, we are left with nothing but their first memory together where the last thing she tells him is to meet her again in Montauk. Now, what was the working title of Stranger Things? Montauk. And what was Mike’s character called in that first draft? Joel. 

There’s no way all of this is merely coincidental.

We also have reports of tape merch that’s been promoted. And how do Joel and Clementine get their memories back? By playing a tape.

And remember—in the trailer, we all watched Vecna tell Will that he’ll be his spy one last time. There’s no way that this was just about a five minute peek at Max and an easy escape with El where Vecna left his most important vessel unsupervised. There’s something more here, and maybe all of this began when Vecna put Will in a trance. 

Alright. So all that said, there’s one last element at play here. And maybe it’s a stretch, but it’s a thought I felt worth including: we, the viewers, are also being Vencna’d. that’s why vol 2 felt so off. Netflix hasn’t been cutting scenes; Vecna has. Remember what he says to the kids? Your memories of how you got here might be foggy. Maybe we are missing some pieces. They’re just going to be revealed to us in the finale when the characters figure out that something is missing from their memories. It’s all a puzzle. Also, the way these scenes are shot are really telling—a solid portion of them are just Jamie staring straight into the camera and talking directly at the viewer. 

4th wall break. We’re complicit. We’ve been actively participating in the story since we literally started listening to WSQK. This is so much more meta than we thought.

@nightnut’s post mentioning esotsm and cyrano troupes in the same sentnce made me #inspired bcs i remembered PATRICK💁💁 who parallels El

Even though El’s intentions are much different from Patrick’s, she still plays a similar role when it comes to substituting another character

In ESOTSM, Patrick wants Clementine to fall in love with him, so he tries to recreate her memories she has with Joel, except it doesn’t work because Clementine is in love with Joel. She’s in love with who he IS, not the role he plays in her life, meaning Patrick could never recreate that.

Cue Mike finding El in the woods while he’s looking for Will. Though it’s not Els intention, she starts to replace Wills role in Mikes life, but no matter how she fills that role, he still can’t tell her he loves her, because he loves the person she’s replacing. He loves Will, but he doesn’t feel like he can, so he redirects that to El. And even after Mike finds Will, he’s still looking for him in El throughout the entire show.

This is also why it’s important that El and Will not only parallel eachother story-wise, but also parallel eachother visually, down to their wardrobe, especially in shots with Mike. It’s showing us his issue distinguishing between the two of them and their roles in his life.

Then we have the cyrano troupe. In ESOTSM, Patrick rehearses the lines that Joel said to Clementine on the frozen lake so he can replicate that memory. Similarly how Will conveys his own feelings as El’s in the van scene.

Patrick also gives Clementine a necklace that Joel got for her, which also parallels the van scene, with Will giving Mike the painting on El’s behalf.

And then the void scene feels like three cyrano troupes in one, where El is reciting Mike’s words from the ily monologue back to him, which was Mike plagerising Will’s words from the van to El.

But that also wasn’t El in the void scene, and I can’t see it being Kali’s projection of her either. Which means it really is a manifestation of Mike’s fears of:

1. Not being enough (not being able to say ily)

2. Losing El

3. (In a weird fucked up sense) losing the person that allowed him to redirect his feelings for Will into something more “normal”

4. Facing the guilt of the consequences of making El an “idea” instead of humanising her (possibly meaning he couldn’t say “I love you” back because he couldn’t perpetuate this idea again and make the same mistake he did at the end of s4, lying to her in her last moments) leading his guilt to concoct this situation where El is telling him she loves him again, because he never got to tell her the truth and it’s too late now

He’s going to have to live with how he’s the reason she never got to be more than a Superhero and how he never got to tell the truth

But it’s interesting to me how after all of that, in the end he still tells her story in a way that dehumanises her, not even giving her the liberty of grief, instead creating a fantasy, because otherwise it would mean he’d have to acknowledge that it isn’t a happy ending. That he’s still stuck hiding from himself and not taking action in reality under the guise of hope and being a storyteller.

Anyway, a lot of substituting…..

I’m just bored, but read it anyways, it’s fun

there sooo many of them, and i’m still pretty lazy so this isn’t perfect, but just let’s start

Mikhailgate

This is practically anti byler theory, but nvm

So, Dimitri has a son named Mikhail, which is russian version of name Michael, Mike

So, people were just saying that instead of Mike, Will will end up with Mikhail(who’s technically Mike bc of the name, yk)

I think everyone was just joking, oh, good ol’ times

and willloveinterestgate is the same

Lettergate/Pocketgate

These theories aren’t the same one, but it’s basically the same concept, ig

The basic thing is, that Mike wrote a letter to Will(singed Love, Mike)

In pocketgate, Mike has the letter saved in his triangle pocket, bc in st, characters many times has letters, that were important to them, in their left pocket(above the heart), for example Hopper and El(Hopper’s heart-to-heart), Jonathan(acceptance letter to college) etc.

And he would just take it out in the middle of confession or sth

+the triangle always points to Will like an arrow

Lettergate is just basically the same, ok, idk how to describe it differently 

Twelvegate

Not exactly a byler, but theory, that Will was number twelve in HNL, and that he’s El’s actual twin

And from that, there’s theory that Will has powers, but wasn’t n. 012

Okay, back to byler

This is same as rainbowgate i think

Flickergate

This theory is very lovely! after Will tells Mike that rolled seven in s1, the light behind them flickers

and since ud is frozen on nov6 83, when you signal sth from ud, it should appear at nov6 83-s1

this connects to electricgate(i dunno if sth like this exist, but just keep reading), the electricity~are friends electric~will possibly having electric powers

so mike and will could go together in s5 to ud on a mission or sth, and kiss in wheelers garage, and that would make the light flicker(i’m so good at explaining things, right😐)

will and mike going to ud together is predicted by mike and will sitting on upside down couch in last ep. of s4

Birthdaygate/Memorygate

Soo, remember how they forgot Will’s birthday? what if all wills memories, that people reminded him of in the shed are gone? his birthday, building castle byers, meeting mike… and that’s why mike says that his life started the day he found her, bc he doesn’t remember meeting Will

for me, it’s really weird, they couldn’t just forget Will’s birthday, no, this ain’t it

Kiss at lovers lake

I’m not sure if this has a different name, but it’s that their first kiss will be near lovers lake

evidence: patrick(the kid who died at lovers lake), had a nickname “berlin wall” or sth(we saw this in the school newspaper), and it was devided to four, same as hawkins

and song heroes is abt couple who lived at different sides of berlin wall, and idk, it just connects, okay?

when will painted the map of hawkins while he was possessed, mike was holding blue and yellow meter

Eightfifteengate

Context: will left the wheelers at 8:15 in s1

in s1e1, time mark 8:15 is literally the shot where will disappears in the shead

i think there’s a season 2 soundtrack called eight fifteen

tw: time fuckery: while will was recording on halloween night, the time says 8:04 while he’s recording mike saying “did you agreed with this?”, but when joyce rewatches it, it show 8:15(byler)

“ it’s 8:15, you’re late”

btw, clocks and watches from hiroshima are stuck at 8:15

aaanywaaay, there’s just too much 8:15 things, aaah(this is just a few)

what it has to do with byler?

well, 15-8=….(wait for it)….seven. a byler number. it was a seven!

also, “the first lie”, when murray says this to jancy, the time mark is… guess what, 8:15

there’s this theory with the songs “the first lie” and “the first i love you”, and it just connects 

Motelgate

theory, that after mike’s “love” confession to el, they went to a motel for sleep, and mike and will had to share a bed, and we could possibly see flashbacks of it in s5, and it would kinda explain the two day skip

Colorgate

blue and yellow meet in the west, i’m sure you know this one, and there’s sooo many evidence in this

mattduffersbasementgate

It’s too late for this to be true, but the duffers are(/were) holding every cast member that ships byler in their basement, lol

bloopergate

Bloopers from byler scenes, basically, for example “not when i was the spy, oh fuck”, basically Finn and Noah being all giggly, i guess

bloopergate implies to every blooper, but why not to mention it

curtaingate

Sth like, that when there’s some fight happening between characters, if curtains are open, it means they’re open with their feeling and opposite 

Example: milkvan make out scene-closed, but you don’t love me fight-opened

Bonus: „ but they like the curtain. people like us are just trying to look behind the curtain”(my very bad quotation of murray, yk what i mean)

Also, Suzie had blue and yellow curtains, and they were opened

And, “and i love her and i can’t lose her again”? Also curtains closed, like wtf, this fandom is crazy

piggybackgate

El knows abt Mike and Will. she saw how they act around each other, she’ve heard will saying “you’re the heart” to mike, saw that mike has Will’s painting now

New Coke Theory

basically, old coca colla is mileven, new coke is byler. it contains some of the old ingredients(mike), and new ones too(will). not everyone likes(bc its gay ship). and when you look at scenes with can of new coke, it’s many times symbolizing byler vs. milkvan

one of my favorite new coke theory examples is this: in s3, after el gets attacked by the flesh monster, she tries to crash a can(but she doesn’t have her powers, so she can’t). this is a can of new coke(byler) and she can’t crush that/destroy it. and in this scene, we get a flashback to the lab, where she crushes aka destroys regular coke(mileven)

phonegate

mike and will not calling each other, bc of joyce’s telemarketer job(he won’t stop whining abt it)

————

i miss all these little silly theories abt literally everything

i hope the byler tag will be like this once again

maybe we could start naming our new theories “gate”s again

for example: heartfeltgat, strangerwritersgate, snowkissgate or sth