Does it matter? No one ever reads this blog

Celebrating by asking the main Stranger Things subreddit if they’ve noticed how interesting it is that Henry/001/Vecna (or H/1/V) is so similar to HIV! Like huh the main villain of the show set in the 80s maybe could be sharing a name to HIV? You know the disease that was called gay cancer ?

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Cannot wait to later inform them that the Duffer Brothers’ father worked at the Research Triangle Institute as a project director. In the 80s.

😈😈😈

There are 42 episodes of ST.

Coincidentally, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the computer Deep Thought calculates the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" as 42.

This reminded me of "the answer to a neverending story," with the previous line being "and there upon a rainbow."

Interestingly, rainbows are created when sunlight interacts with water droplets at an angle of 42 degrees.

After 42 episodes of ST, however, we did not, in fact, get many, if any, answers. If anything, we have even more questions.

However, if we think about double rainbows...

First of all, with double rainbows, the color sequence of the second rainbow is upside down.

Which is what we see in The Rainbow Room. On one side of the room, the rainbow is rightside up, and on the other side, it's upside down.

Secondly, double rainbows occur when some of the light entering the water droplets doesn't escape after the first reflection. Instead, this light reflects a second time before finally exiting the droplets.

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)

I can never resist a puzzle so I figured that I would do some research, and I found that it’s used for pattern recognition with something called an Optic Nerve Visual Prosthesis.

The patterns line up exactly, and the only difference is that there are more of them.

After finding this, I don’t really know if it’s still a code. It might just be a way for the people that worked at the lab to test pattern recognition.

ARGH, I'm pulling my hair out - there's no way they'd release the interactive content in the box set first?! right?! RIGHT?!

AND ALSO - you know how the description of the ST box set is very, uh, high-level? Like, we don't know why there are that many discs, and what exact extra content we can expect? I took a browse on the Arrow Video website, and I think most of the releases have a MUCH more detailed explanation of A) the exact content you'll be getting, B) which disc the content will be on and C) the exact origin of the interview/content (e.g. who is conducting the interview, or narrating the additional video essays, etc etc.).

Look at the AV description for the unreleased, limited edition Jackie Chan breakout hit box set, which contains 10 discs:

And again, for their TMNT box set:

The description for Shawscope volume 3, which has 10 discs:

Now, let's look at the ST box set description (keep in mind that both the Jackie Chan one and the ST have pre-order status, and look at how MINIMALISTIC the descriptions of the ST box set are!):

That's it - that's the only description of the box set, despite it having 25 whole discs! I've looked at the Arrow Videos website, and the ST box set appears to be an anomaly amongst all of their other box sets, which contain very detailed explanations of what exactly is included in each box set (even if it's just one disc!).

What makes it even weirder is that AV has a dedicated tab for just ST, and no other box set:

Byl3r exists because of the Duffers.

I was rewatching Sorcerer, and you know what gives? It gives love that is trying k break through static (thats sounds deep, ft).

Let me see if I can explain it. I am good at telling when creators don't give 2 flying fucks about their stories, I can call bullshit on that any day of the week, there's a reason I never got attached to desti3l or Johnl0ck or even m4cdanno, derision is easy to spot.

Most directors can barely fake their contempt to their audience, especially when their audience is shipping two boys or two girls. I went to the school of Jeff Davis, so nothing surprises me. If y'all think being called noise is bad, you'd be crying in fetal position at the shit st3r3k fans heard.

My point is, never once did I ever think: Damn, they're milking the shit out of this ship for fans while hating it. Never. Ever did that cross my mind.

I mean this as objectively as I can, the shed scene? Those two wrote that shit. It was not fucking Leigh, unless you think she was on set holding Ross hand. Because thats what it takes at this point. It takes you guys believing she puppeteered her then husband to this extent while he was somehow social engineering her behind her back.

Because that scene? No matter how hard I try to look at it, nothing sells that they didn't give a damn. Absolutely nothing. That scene is absolutely beautifully shot, from the light, to the intimacy, to the words, to the acting... It is absolutely beautiful.

And its not the only one, either. All of the scenes between them are always soft, gentle... This what people don't seem to accept, directing and editing breathe life into writing.

Another director would have made those scenes into something else completely different, I am quite positive their work breathed half ot byl3r into life, whether you guys like or not and never did I think they didn't give a damn, I will be honest, I always felt like they cared more about them than they did to like... a lot other things.

You can believe they sold out, that they never gave them, but you don't write that shit, don't direct like they did, if they didn't care about them. And even Sorcerer, despite everything the tape scene is so profoundly beautiful.

That scene stands for itself and it says an awful lot, and we don't know what influence the Mindflayer had on shit and when it started, so I am starting to wonder if that scene was some attempt of something to break through the noise, to wake them up, to make something move.

Since people are very upset because they think it was queerbait they're biased and because of their hate for the Duffers they can't see or think clearly

and gasped and gasped and gasped????????!!!!!

GUYS - thank you @youaremess for pointing this out (and courtesy to Google translate!)

Laudatory letter on 8th July 1985, one week after the Soviets 'defeat' in Starcourt mall:

Upon the great altar of eternity, the immortal flame of the People's Republic shall shine brightly. On this day, July 8, 1985, I hereby award you—most esteemed citizens of the Union—the Star of Valor for your diligent and steadfast work on this highly classified matter.

Thanks to your diligence and determination, we can look forward to victory and taking the war to the enemy's doorstep. Victory to the Soviet Union!

You will shortly receive your personal authorization codes, granting you full secure access and protocol authorization. It is your duty as scientists of the Soviet Union to report all discoveries to your immediate supervisor, ensuring that no information is compromised. Please consult your personal records to identify your supervising officer.

This document also serves as proof that the bearer enjoys full diplomatic immunity under the law and is to carry out their duties in strict accordance with state regulations.

Then this document, dated 14th March 1986, a week before season 4, showing that the Soviets still had a presence in Hawkins:

Dr. Ivanov,

I am writing to you today in the interest of national security to express concern regarding the specimen you recovered in Kamchatka last week. We have managed to conduct several tests on it here in Moscow, and the sample appears to match the genetic code sequence obtained by our affiliates in America. Regarding the experiment in question, our American affiliates also confirmed simultaneous seismic disturbances during the specimen's dissection. Our scientists in Moscow performed the dissection at the exact same time as our American affiliate—06:14.

Following the initial incision, the specimen delivered an electric shock in both Moscow and the Hawkins laboratories. The attending physicians sustained third-degree burns and are currently in isolation due to radioactive contamination. Our findings align with your results from last week, and we can confirm the presence of dark matter within the specimen. All necessary measures must be taken to ensure this information does not become public knowledge before containment is achieved. Both teams of scientists have now been placed under strict quarantine, as symptoms of radiation sickness have begun to manifest.

Please understand that every effort is being made to contact the American affiliate; their coordinates are shown in Figure 1 on the right. The Comrades thank you for your diligent work on this matter and for your continued cooperation in military operations.

You must proceed with your experiments as planned and eliminate all prisoners required for use in the experiment. Please report back to us as soon as possible.

here's the link to the 'declassified' files, that somebody found by cracking the code from the official book that released today:

this concept art for the rifts being a spiral, or a time vortex that leads into a time tunnel (as suspected!!! ding! ding ding!)

DING DING DING

why is Max listed as being born in 1972 and graduating in 1990? that would make her 1 year younger than everyone?

also there is some puzzle to solve here, but my brain is too tired:

probably relates to the hawkins lab floor plan too:

Brenner's notes:

and for all you Russian speakers, have a field day: