these are not just screenshots from 1x01, these are direct flashbacks of Will in Castle Byers after the rain fight. this mf indeed WAS lurking around! it was not just a foreshadowing for s1 or even the final battle of the whole show. now it’s seen as an explanation for what really happened with Mike… are you telling me that I guessed right, the rain fight was corrupted, and I’m not making it up?? 😭

like, what??? hello??? I know I’ve come to that conclusion myself, and it makes sense, but holy shit wtf wdym it might be correct???

I don’t know, what other explanation can be there? It doesn’t foreshadow the meat flayer, and Vecna will be introduced only in s4. However, it’s shown right after Mike and Will’s fight. Why?

(It would make sense for me though, if, let’s still imagine, this scene was different in the original timeline, but Henry used his dark-Vecna-magic, changed that, and here we got a hint that what we’re watching is not exactly correct…)

what did you do there, motherfucker???

(add here a theory that Holly represents Mike, and recall the scene where Henry was watching her and her best friend…)

so what we have is: s5 is distorted, characters play other characters, Holly and Mary are exactly byler, whom Henry watched through the rain, and in s3 the rain fight changes its context through Will’s flashbacks… which could also actually mean that that exact HxM scene where they watch a movie together under the blankets, could be the original byler scene, changed into the rain fight. :|

because you know why it also makes sense? the rain fight happens after Will and Mike (and Lucas) spend time in the basement. remember where Holly and Mary watch their movie? Mhm. Exactly.

okay, nice, noted. it doesn’t drive me crazy, not a bit 🫠

(I know that the fight happens in summer, and HxM on the Halloween Eve, but you know how they say: time’s funny like that! who knows what’s even real after all)

What if s3 is also a continuation of illusion…

that would explain a lot of corruption happening in later seasons. could it also start in the end of s2, flaying Hawkins? I guess, maybe… And that’s how we’d get a loop. But there should be a moment where the loop breaks/starts, and probably it’s s4 finale, after which we got even deeper in Vecna’s trap (allegedly lost all the post apocalyptic lore) and went from just weird vibes (that started back in s3) to s5 absolute dream fuckery.

Actually my working crack theory is that s3 is original s5, but ig I’ll share it after t85 already 😬 but probably the continuation concept is the glue that can make this theory work: we just take what’s been just said 👆 and complement it with the fact that Vecna rerecord memories.

Thus, timeline closer to the later seasons of ST is: S5 👉 T85 👉 S3 👉 S4, the apocalypse (?). But T85 can get us of Camazotz, that’s how S3 can change itself in altered S5 (having elements of S3 in it). So in Vecna’s plan it would be just S3 that we’ve seen, and after the party starts winning it will be changed to the real S5 instead of both, dreamt S5 that we got and S3. And as for the re-recorded memories, they were used to building the S5-T85-S3 chain, and there’s something else, something real behind it.

Idk, mb it doesn’t make sense, but does have plot holes, but it’s also 2am and the best I can do out of the theory that came to me 30 min ago before t85 morning comes 🤪