Venomoir! I often think about these two specific scenes in s4 because Iâve always found their similarities to be odd⌠and I recently realized they might be a bit #Chancegate coded. I want to know if you can pick up what Iâm putting down and make any sense of this. Your perspective (and other Bychance theorizers) on this would be appreciated.
Ever notice how in s4, Mike has a very negative obsession with the concept of chance? Specifically missed chances/ opportunities. Also fate, in a way. (And Iâm not talking about his comment in the van scene about meeting El being âdumb luck.â)
There are two near-identical scenes (that are certainly meant to parallel) where it shows most blatantly: the scene with Will in Jonathan's bedroom in ep 4 (14:54), and the scene with Will in the junkyard in ep 5 (24:45). These conversations are so similar:
In the ep 4 scene, Mike is frustrated that he MISSED HIS CHANCE to say "the thing" to El. Had he just said the thing while he had the chance to, maybe he would have come with her to NINA. "Maybe I should've said something, and if I would've said that thing..."
Should've. Would've. Maybe.
He's ruminating on hypotheticals. It's not constructive. It's very unlike Mike, who is supposed to be a pragmatic leader and problem-solver. Why is he ruminating on his missed chance instead of problem-solving or strategizing?
In the ep 5 scene, Mike is frustrated that he MISSED HIS CHANCE to find out the number before the agent man died. "If that guy would've lived one more second..." and "I should've explained myself, because them maybe Eleven would've taken me with her..."
Again, with the shouldâve, wouldâve and maybe. I donât think this is coincidence.
He asks, "Why didn't he just say the number?" Which is a peculiar and useless question. (And no, that's not criticizing the writing, it's pointing out how unlike himself Mike is this season). That line is also ironic, because it directly parallels the other "would've" scene - the audience is encouraged to ask themselves, "Why didn't you just say âthe thingâ to El, Mike?"
Mike telling El âthe thingâ and the man telling Mike the number are both presented as hypotheticals that COULD have happened. Mike even asks the hypothetical question noted above ^.
A hypothetical question being defined as, ââŚnot about a real event but rather a potential one.â Potential as in possibility. As in chance being defined as a âpossibility of something happening.â
How curious. And do you know what's additionally curious? In both scenes, the first thing Will says to Mike after he vents about his missed chance and hypotheticals is "No."
WHAT. DOES. IT. MEAN?
Is Bychance even real? Or is it all going to be a hypothetical possibility Mike makes up in his own head? (A "delusional" love triangle if you will, like the Hopper/ Joyce/ Mr Clarke scenario).
Maybe, but it wouldnât make sense for Mike to assume thereâs something going on between them if A) Will doesnât give him a reason to suspect and B) Mike doesnât yet strongly suspect Will of being attracted to men (...the jury is still out on that one).
Alternatively, maybe Bychance is real (to whatever extent) and the point is that instead of ruminating over his âmissed chanceâ Mike takes action â a bit like the contrast between his reaction to his break-up with El (passivity) and his fight with Will (taking action).
And the third option is that Bychance doesn't happen, nor does Mike convince himself of it, and Chance as a character only exists as a stand-in/ reminder of the concept of chance itself, which is somehow related to Byler's joint arc.
What do you think? Are these scenes Bychance-coded to you? Am I crazy and delusional? Have I officially been Bychance-pilled?
Hi eerie!! omg I love your analyses so much I'm actually so stoked you came to my anon box wth hhh ...
i think you're onto something queen!! maybe if we put our minds together we can get somewhere LMAO dw, this is a safe space to be delusional and creative if this theory appeals to you in some way.
what I CAN say is that since i started looking into this, I've noticed it connects with other things such as birthdaygate AND vecna. And whereas I AM open to different interpretations, atp I feel confident enough to settle for "naming a character Chance was intentional." Let me explain why I feel this way atm, I'd LOVE your input:
I recently mentioned this weird "word play" vibe I got from Bychance, yeah? which I'd say you might also be picking up on atp since you're looking at dialogue too! I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but then I realized something: they did something eerily similar with 001! And THAT is likely why "bychance" will just not leave my brain.
Here's an example:
This is precisely why I'm currently hosting this poll to determine where we're at on this subject. Because imo, 001 was planned all along, and this type of "word play" and "hinting" dates all the way back to S1:
ONE I've been thinking of the CONCEPT of One in the series and how it connects with 001/Henry/Vecna/the UD--whereas coming together and working as a team will lead you to victory, when it comes to Henry/the MF/Vecna/001, specifically, we associate it with the hivemind. And it could very well also serve as a metaphor for Hawkin's "hivemind mentality"--one collective consciousness under the control of 001, and how that sort of mentality can kill originality and the self. Thinking in Absolutes, black and white. Force conforming at its best.
I feel the clearest ( and most literal lmao ) example of this is the S3 episode "E pluribus unum" aka the Hawkins residents uniting to become the fleshflayer to kill El and in so doing, losing themselves entirely. It's pretty on the nose! And it reminds me of Camazotz and the IT in AWIT, and The Nothing from A Neverending Story, which was directly mentioned in the show. And we know the show loves to reference these two. And it also reminds me of how the Tigers were roped by Jason's grief-ridden vision: the Absolute truth was that Eddie had killed Chrissy. No other "logical" explanation because the alternative required Jason to accept things about Chrissy he just could not fathom.
WILL So now, let's think of the CONCEPT of Free Will/Willpower in the series, and how it resonates with Will.
Will, who survives the UD against all odds--choice, agency, having the will to do something. But also the self/originality: creation, life, art. Desire/want/love ...
"if there's a will, there's a way"
Which is very fitting for his name and character arc, yes? I've said this before and I'll say it again: Mike is the heart of the party, and imo, Will is the heart of Stranger Things.
Mike himself hinted at it: "Hawkins is not the same without you."
Whereas all of these concepts exist within all of our heroes, if you ask me, this type of design could very well be related to what the Duffers meant when they said they hope Will's emotional arc ( â¤ď¸ ) ties the whole series together ( connection ).
â¤ď¸ = connection
And this sort of subtext/text? Ties the whole series together. Talk about some ingenious word play/engineering here ... pretty "on the nose" stuff.
Moreover, remember what happened to him in S2 and S4? His bodily autonomy/agency was taken from him, and his birthday was forgotten. What better way to connect with the cosmic/existential horror themes & erasure of the self, than forgetting the day when he began to exist?
CHANCE
Chance is a double-edged sword. Take a look at this, which is the probability theory according to Alan Turing, Will's historical hero:
probability theory, a branch of mathematics concerned with the analysis of random phenomena. The outcome of a random event cannot be determined before it occurs, but it may be any one of several possible outcomes. The actual outcome is considered to be determined by chance.
Think of how this relates to the CHARACTER Chance, just like how the CONCEPTS of Free Will/Willpower and One are related to the characters Will and Henry/Vecna/001 ...
We know jack shit about him. He was not characterized at ALL this season, and he is certainly a complete stranger to us. In fact, he was the LEAST characterized out of the Tigers. He's a complete wild card--the majority expect absolutely 0 surprises from him, he'll just continue to be a random, meaningless NPC extra in the background, a mean bully who'll punch the heroes and be mean.
But what if there's some subversion at play here? @offsidetracked made an excellent post recently about the jock trope subversion that is VERY relevant to this discussion imo:
đŹ 1  đ 20  â¤ď¸ 64 ¡ The Tigers and Subverting the Jock Archetype in Stranger Things ¡ The jocks might play a different role than we expect ne
There's SOMETHING here for sure, because if you ask me, IF they just wanted to excessively hint at the WORD/CONCEPT of Chance ( for whatever reason??? ) and didn't necessarily mean to anchor it to a specific character, which CAN also be tied to Will, then THIS would be real:
Have the WORD/CONCEPT somewhere NEAR/BEHIND "Chad" or "John" or "Christophers" head ( they've literally shown us via Will before that things behind character's heads and posters and signs hint at things: re the Alan Turing poster and the word "Henry" behind him--and with the amount of times the word "Chance" is used this season, we would've noticed if they wanted us to at some point. )
But because we have a living, breathing, real human being directly associated with the NAME "Chance" in the series, whose SHIP NAME with Will just so happens to be "Bychance" ( coincidence in the "not many coincidences" show? ) I can't ignore these "coincidences" aka these three connections: In S4, Will came out of the subtext ( his sexuality confirmed ) 001 came out of the subtext ( and we learned he was here all along ) Chance came out of the subtext ( he became real ) Even though Will's birthday was forgotten and remained subtextual, also potentially tying these 3 together is the CHANCE + 22 + 001 pattern
Moreover, birthdaygate and bychancegate are both: â treated as JOKES in the fandom, â generally questioned/not believed because they make "no narrative sense", â similar in recipe: they follow that weird, strange "fairytale-logic"/wordplay thing potentially associated to Henry/001 and his powers that I'm still trying to wrap my head around.
Some people even still theorize that Henry/001/Vecna was a villain that came out of nowhere in S4, and that there are "plot holes" surrounding his existence. Aka, they still have a season left which will likely resolve a lot of that.
So, is this all truly a meaningless coincidence ...? is "bychance" a cosmic joke? The universe pranking us? What are the odds, genuinely, that this all doesn't pay off in some way?
The literal ONLY difference that this would all make for me if they had named him literally anything other than Chance is that I WOULDN'T BE OVER HERE GOING NUTS OVER THIS FREAKING CRACK SHIP I PROMISE YOU THAT, I PROMISE YOU I WOULDN'T GIVE A SINGLE FLYING FUCK IF THEIR SHIP NAME WAS "BYCHAD"
they surely a 'crack' ship bc they got me feeling like I did a line over here and I don't even do cocaine đ
@eeriesilkworm â¤ď¸ â¤ď¸ â¤ď¸ What do you think though? I'm so curious to hear your thoughts!
