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runninguplenorahills · 1 year

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Mike’s bulletin board- garbage pail kids cards

I’m not sure if anyone has found this out before but I did some research on popular 80s toys and stumbled upon the garbage pail kids cards which I’m certain are these cards on Mike’s bulletin board. And the crazy thing is that (almost) all of the garbage pail kids whose cards Mike owns share their names with characters from Stranger Things:

Mad Max

Mad Max who is taking their brain out of their own head, just like our Max who suffers from some kind of supernatural brain death because her mind has been taken by Vecna! Her mind is not where it’s supposed to be, it’s been taken out of her head.

Evil Eddie

Evil Eddie who is a vampire about to bite a Barbie doll, kinda like our Eddie who got framed for the murder of Chrissy, killed by demobats and is deemed evil by basically everyone in Hawkins.

Live Mike

Live Mike who is getting electrocuted……. whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean💀 I feel like this might be a dig on “Love Mike” but I’m really not sure. Maybe some of you guys have some smart thoughts on this??

Heavin’ Steven

So this is the last one and the kid is called heavin’ steven which could be about Steve?? But I’m really unsure about this!! Maybe some of y’all also have some more smart thoughts in this here.

#stranger things #stranger things analysis #st set design #st mike’s room #mike wheeler #max mayfield #eddie munson #and maybe:#steve harrington #st4 #st4 analysis #byler

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henrysglock · 2 months

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“it’s a production error”

L+ Ratio + Fuck You + Eat My Ass + Eldritch Blast

#st5 leaks #st set design #st nina project #henry creel

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itswhatyougive · 8 months

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Something that's been bothering me is a small detail in ST4 set design, specifically Eddie's trailer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the only place I remember seeing prominently displayed laundry baskets full of dirty clothes, both in the Right Side Up and Upside Down versions of the trailer.

I keep thinking back to Eddie's pointed comment to Jason Carver in the very first episode of S4, about basketball being a game where you "toss balls into laundry baskets". They drove that line home even further by having Dustin repeat it back to Eddie at the cafeteria table.

It's giving me this nagging feeling that Jason and Eddie have more history than we're led to think.

Eddie said it with such bitterness and anger, loud enough that he wanted Jason to take the bait, which he did.

The latest chapters of Hellfire in ST Puzzle Tales also reinforce the fact that Eddie is very very touchy about basketball and the basketball team. He calls it "gross" and he doesn't even want to see Lucas wearing his basketball jacket. It seems oddly "personal", this chip on his shoulder about basketball and Jason.

Do they have some kind of shared history? Is it meant literally, do the laundry baskets have some kind of significance? The Upside Down version of the trailer is stuck in 1983, is it possible three years ago or more Jason used to come over there for some reason? Or is it a figurative thing?

Part of me thinks that new Eddie Munson book that's coming out will have something about Jason in it. Flight of Icarus is set in 1984, so possibly after whatever history he and Jason had. Eddie would be a senior (first time) at Hawkins High School and Jason would've been a sophomore.

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byler-alarmist · 8 months

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Don't know if anyone will see this, but the demobats are male sex organs. Send tweet

#st analysis #stranger things analysis #stranger things #st4 rewatch #demobats #st set design

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aemiron-main · 1 year

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a message to the “the set design isn’t that deep” truthers

so yeah. maybe try considering that there’s brilliant people who are passionate and skilled at their jobs. just a thought. the painting not only shows a topic that connects to other scenes and shows it in a way that connects to other scenes but was custom made to do so AND to tell us things about the creel family and their home and their dynamic and how the decor reflects this.

here’s the link to the full article!

#stranger things #byler #st analysis #st set design #i have so so many thoughts on this FR #into the analysis it goes #me when I was right and this also connects to the wheelers #gotta finish that analysis fr

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bylerschmyler · 1 year

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What the actual f.....

#stranger things #mike wheeler #byler #will byers #vecna #vecna stranger things #will byers room #lenora #st set design #stranger things set design

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howtobecomeadragon · 2 years

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Posters, drawings, lookalikes, and more!

This post goes all over the place but I promise it's interesting!!!!

SO: I've seen these go around: the moment that Mike finds El in a trailer, we get a voice-over from Mike saying "that's not Will." And then this idea of maybe Mike's arc paralleling these lines from Hopper: from what Hopper had heard, Will could've been El and vice versa, they looked alike, and maybe he was chasing the wrong kid, like Mike has been doing the past couple seasons romantically.

But I actually found an on-screen example of a lookalike being weirdly in the mix of a scene with a romantic pairing. Again, round of applause to the set design:

Nancy takes off her shirt in front of Steve, and she's standing right in front of a poster featuring a woman with a white bikini to match Nancy's white bra. She's blonde while Nancy is brunette but that doesn't even matter in this scenario and here's why:

Nancy makes it clear in s1 that Steve seems to sleep around a lot, he has a big poster of a woman in a bikini right over his bed, in s3 he flirts with every cute girl that comes into Sccops Ahoy, he starts liking Robin after Dustin suggests it in s3, and then he starts to like Nancy again after Dustin suggests it in s4. He's looking for a woman, any woman.

When Stevw is about to hook up with Nancy, he's free to check out this other woman right behind her. He says "damn" and she says "shut up" and then they go to bed. This isn't to say Steve wasn't into Nancy, but maybe suggesting that Nancy is in over her head with him, foreshadowing them not staying together, suggesting that he isn't good for her. Basically that something about this situation isn't right.

I made a joke when I first noticed this: who is he even saying "damn" to?? Nancy or the poster? And that's the whole point here. Steve says "damn" when Nancy takes off her shirt, while looking at Nancy but the poster was very clearly in his field of vision. That reminded me of a couple things that aren't brand new, but I wanted to connect here:

Mike looked at El in s1 and saw someone who looks pretty similar to Will. This visual similarity comes up twice, iirc, in s1. And then it happens again in s4. They gave El bangs so that she looks similar to Will, making the situation from s1 (IF they had the same hair, would they look similar? Well now they basically have the same hair when El's is up in a ponytail) a reality. They also dressed El in a plaid shirt in 4x04 so that she looked similar to Will (which was stated by the costume designer in that one video).

While Steve is looking for a girl, any girl, Mike had feelings for Will as a child, and latched onto a girl that looked similar to him, as that made the most sense to a repressed queer kid in the 80s. That's why it's important that Will and El look similar while Nancy and the poster woman don't look similar.

Bringing this back to posters behind a love interest: we get this from s3. Initially, we only see that Mike's hawk poster from his basement is in his field of vision and a butterfly is in El's field of vision. Mike is looking for masculinity and El is looking for something feminine, childish? But later in the episode, we see Will's drawing is right next to the poster. I'm not 100% sure if this is Will's D&D character (bc of the fire) or Mike's (bc of the sword), but either way, Will's drawing is there for Mike to look at while being with, kissing El, similar to the bikini poster.

Additionally from s4, we have this post by @willbyerssupremacist, with the picture below: Will's drawing again in Mike's field of vision behind El. And Mike looked up after reading El's "from, El" letter to look directly at Will's drawing, noted in this post by @chirpsythismorning.

Bringing this back to Steve saying "damn," it also made me think of Mike's speech to El in 4x09.

Mike hears Will call him the heart, he turns around, and says "I love you" to El.

I don't think we focus on this enough: Will didn't say "tell her you love her." He said "you're the heart," boiling down what he said in the van: "you guide us, inspire us, hold us together, and we'd fall apart without you." But Mike took that prompting from Will and told El he loves her. Partly because he knew that was what their last fight was about, but could it also be a case of feeling his feelings towards Will, looking at Will calling him the heart (the poster in this scenario) and then turning to El and spitting out his version of Steve saying "damn" to Nancy?

Looking at another example that I found of posters behind a love interest signaling something negative about the couple:

The introduction of Max to the party is very focused on Dustin, we don't get close ups on the other boys during this initial intro, and what does he see behind her? "Extra! Extra! First Woman." Dustin's first crush. But it's just the first, showing that there's going to be more, she's not it for him. Which reminds me of El saying that Mike is her first boyfriend, right?

And we have this imagery at the Snowball: Dustin just panning his vision to see what's next after Max isn't an option anymore: more women after the First Woman! Similar to how Steve and Mike could've just panned their vision over while looking at Nancy or El to see what else is there: hot girl in a bikini, a reminder of Will.

So basically, there's something here with Will's drawing being in Mike's field of vision when he's with El. It's a parallel to two other failed romantic matches. And I just think that poster behind Nancy is so interesting!!! I'll be posting more about some Nancy parallels soon. 🙂

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Edit: Some Nancy-Byler parallels all kind of loosely connected: part 1, part 2, part 3

#byler #st parallels #st set design #st cinematography

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there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow · 1 year

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MEAT above Melvin

@howtobecomeadragon and I have been exchanging a variety of ideas about what this sign could mean and we reached some interesting analyses!

This is such an intriguing shot because of that word alone. It’s directly, perfectly centered above Mike and El—perfectly centered in-frame (with the ‘S’ cut off) too. It’s a purposeful shot.

Obviously there’s the flesh monster as a present, looming threat that can be correlated here, but the monster itself isn’t a literal threat that poses to meaningfully separate Mike and El. It’s not like the shot of the very obvious #1 hanging right above (in-between if you imagine a frontal shot) Will and Mike specifically, in the same episode no less.

From this shot, I gather that One aims to get between and separate Will and Mike for his own purposes. Mike is constantly involved with thwarting One’s plans throughout the series, a big one being Mike’s interference with Will’s possession. Will opened up to Mike about feeling the Mind Flayer, and Mike said ‘maybe that’s good’ because Will was like a super spy. Mike later knew Will needed to be sedated when he was possessed because Will had able to open up to him previously. It was also Mike’s “it was the best thing I’ve ever done” monologue that got Will to break through enough to communicate via Morse code. All this to say that these interferences highlight the problem for One: Mike’s bond with Will. Henry is aware of Mike’s power in this bond, and so this analysis of the above shot holds weight.

But then there’s MEAT. Dragon mentioned that Mike and El could’ve been placed in an area where there’s health/nursing/pharmaceutical significance to represent taking care of their relationship, but we don’t get that. And unlike the #1 sign that points toward an outside force wanting to separate Will and Mike for a Henry-specific purpose, we can’t grab a similar analysis from MEAT/ the flesh monster. What can be understood is that Melvin’s relationship is compromised by themselves; Mike especially when breaking down what is about to happen after we see MEAT. One conclusion howtobecomeadragon and I came to is the concept of butchering/spilling blood in the way meat is prepared. It’s a messy, bloody process. ‘Butchering,’ by definition as an alternate description, can mean to spoil something completely by performing or dealing with a situation very badly.

Cue Mike. Howtobecomeadragon describes Mike as having ‘butchered’ not only his apology to El but also his messy attempt to say “I love you” to El. And of course, we have this very telling choice phrase from Mike (along with “Dustin, you’re breaking up”):

Mike and El have been going way too fast in their relationship and aren’t taking the time to understand each other (El is perfectly in-shot by Mike’s head when he says this, emphasizing that point). This truth is further emphasized by this next shot howtobecomeadragon pointed out to me:

A divider is between El and Mike, revealing a divide. The divider itself is not set perfectly between them either, once again depicting how El and Mike are not on the same page. Mike is placed further away from the divider, indicating he is not anywhere near resolving his issue. El is placed near the divider, and, though she isn’t on the same page as Mike, being close to the divider is indicative of her trying to listen/understand. Overall, it’s easy to notice the very clear divide within the divide represented here.

So Mike is butchering his words to El, dealing with their situation badly and even ‘performing’ the role of a boyfriend badly to his girlfriend. Of course, this goes deeper then just being a bad boyfriend. Pair the action of butchering with ‘spilling blood,’ a requirement when cutting meat. Blood is our force of life and, as such, contains our essence. Our essence is within the core of our beliefs, personality, and sense of identity: all that encompasses you. If you know the phrase “it’s in my blood,” this is part of your essence. It means you simply are the way you are/ are born the way you are.

Once again, cue Mike. It is my belief that because Mike says “blank makes you crazy” to El in this scene, Will is automatically bound to this scene due to “crazy” being a word in ST used synonymously with “love.” We know “love makes you crazy.” We know “Crazy together.” We know many examples. It should be clear that “blank makes you crazy,” and Mike’s inability to say “love” himself here, is all you need to understand that love for him is found naturally with Will but not with El. Regardless of your stance on Mike’s sexuality, the fact that Mike can be in love with and attracted to Will/to men is part of what makes Mike… Mike (“born this way”). Tie this with the spilling of blood—the spilling of your life’s essence, which is tied to truth. Your truth. Mike cannot spill his truth here. He cannot profess/‘spill’ “love” to El because that is not his truth. Bring this back around to ‘butchering,’ to spoiling something completely by dealing with a situation badly. Mike tries to force the word “love,” and so makes the situation more confusing (made infinitely worse in s4).

To further expand on this, puberty is a clear theme in s3. Puberty is a messy process. Howtobecomeadragon referenced Mike’s previous assertion to Will, that they aren’t kids anymore, and compared that to Mike trying to get El to say ‘love’ (as he clearly can’t say it himself) during this scene: “it’s what old people say to each other.” Dragon says Mike’s idea of romance stems from aging, which is correct because the presence of puberty in s3 is laying out what Mike believes getting older entails: having a girlfriend and leaving what’s believed to be ‘childish’/not ‘normal’ [in the process of growing up and assimilating into society] behind.

Additionally, he and El can only be physical (kiss) without proper communication. Physical -> Meat -> Flesh -> Puberty, the process in which your physical body begins to change. More than just physically, you are expected to change. While Mike and El are in the convenient store, trying to communicate/figure out their issues, MEAT hangs above them while a flesh monster is out to get them [more symbolically than literally]. The physical truth is out to get them, looms over them, and the truth behind their issues—Mike’s hidden issue particularly (perhaps even expressed through the MEAT sign, as the ME part falls perfectly over Mike and possibly represents a ‘me’ issue for Mike + an abundance of Mike’s blue lighting takes up the center-aisle shot)—is the threat to their relationship. This hidden issue of Mike’s that ‘threatens’ to break Melvin up is not meant to be a bad thing for them (no longer being a couple is the best outcome for them both). It is, however, Mike’s truth that is a threat against him having the norm. His truth is a threat to what is socially expected of him, causing Mike to continue this [butchered] heteronormative performance.

#after all…#what if they don’t like the truth?#mike wheeler #anti m*leven #byler #meat symbolism #st set design #st3

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fandomfoundmyart · 1 year

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you know how ppl are talking abt this sometimes?? its bc the walls are painted in a cool design;

like i just rly like the set design here bc it is so fucking cool and it goes from the wall to the floor and i assume on the other side it connects the same way making the other side purple up

you can kinda see that in this image bc the rainbow on the floor goes up and starts to wrap around half the room with purple facing up

set design appreciation 💪💪

#this has probs been said already #but i just wanted to say it again bc ive seen some ppl be a lil confused by this #this isnt targeted to someone specifically i just rly love the design of this room #like goddamn the crew put sm effort into this #anyways tag time #stranger things #rainbow room #henry creel #el hopper #st analysis #st set design #byler #< target audience #ffma.txt #userfandomfoundmyart #henry/vecna/one #stranger things analysis #stranger things set design

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jazy3 · 1 year

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Something I just noticed about this scene that I didn’t see before is how Nancy mirrors the swimsuit model in the poster behind her on Steve’s wall. I think there’s an interesting parallel between the idealized woman behind her, the supermodel, and Nancy the girl of Steve’s dreams. The poster represents what Steve is supposed to want, the fantasy, the perfect beautiful dream girl, but Nancy is what he actually wants. Someone whose not just beautiful or fantastical, but someone that he can have a real connection with. Someone who listens to him and understands him.

Someone who is the whole package. Smart. Beautiful. Caring. Funny. Someone he can build a life with that is so much better than the fantasy of what he’s supposed to want or the life his parents have that they’ve laid out for him. Considering that Steve’s character and this moment in particular changed so much from the original script to the final product I think it’s cool that they chose to represent that in the set design. Whether intentional or not it makes for a really cool parallel and framing of this scene.

#stranger things #steve harrington #stancy #nancy wheeler #steve x nancy #st season 1 #parallels #st set design

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tal-vez-o-quizas · 1 year

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SET DESIGN ANALYSIS: THE JAWS POSTER BEHIND MIKE IN THE "COOL COOL" SCENE IS THERE TO REINFORCE MIKE ENTERED WILL'S ROOM IN PREDATORY MODE 😎

In a sense, yes!

You are right; it's symbolism for sure, hehe.

#ask #anon #st4 #st set design #byler #mike wheeler i know what you are

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runninguplenorahills · 1 year

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The guitar(s) in Mike’s bedroom

I wanted to make a post about what the guitar(s) is Mike’s room could mean because quite frankly, I’m not at all convinced that Mike will play the guitar next season!

Set design says something about the characters and since this is Mike’s bedroom it obviously says something about him. But those props have deeper meaning than simply “they just like this”, like the ONE WAY sign obviously isn’t there to convey the message that “Hey, Mike thinks traffic signs are awesome”. The props in Mike’s room tell a story about Mike, something significant to understand his character and so having the guitar(s)‘s only purpose be that Mike likes playing the guitar doesn’t seem to make that much sense, especially because Mike has never expressed an interest in music ever. Now, you could argue that pre s4 Lucas also never expressed an interest in basketball and that he still likes it but basketball and the basketball team all played major roles in Lucas’ arc this season! We get introduced to Lucas being a part of the team and we focus on that throughout the whole season while with Mike they only really quickly show the head of an acoustic guitar and a completely blurry garbage pail kids sticker which features an electric guitar. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it kinda thing which is why I think it would be weird if it actually just represents Mike liking the guitar [especially because that interest in music doesn’t come up again for the rest of the season!] because you would actually have to look deeper into the set design and look for deeper meanings to actually catch especially the electric guitar on the garbage pail kids sticker!

I think it’s way more likely that we would get a love confession through something like a letter/letters (lettergate) than through a song because letters and especially Mike writing and not writing letters is a reoccurring theme in s4 along with Mike making phone calls (phonegate). It’s simply way more logical to expand on a topic that’s been touched on before than to just randomly add something new that’s never been shown/discussed beforehand. [especially because s4 and s5 go hand in hand]

And well….. I guess I’m gonna say it: Mike being really into music is fanon! Mike is a part of hellfire not corroded coffin! Yeah, Mike tries to be more like Eddie but he doesn’t do that because he genuinely wants to be exactly like Eddie. He does it because he doesn’t like being himself! Mike does not actually aspire to be just like Eddie and do everything Eddie does. There’s of course nothing wrong with headcanoning that he does but there’s nothing in canon to solidly back up that Mike’s really into playing the guitar/making music and therefore it is very unlikely to happen in the show and honestly nonsensical as well (imo). So Mike very probably won’t be playing the guitar next season because for the narrative it doesn’t hold as much value as a letter/letters or missed phone calls! Simply because we’re already familiar with the topic of Mike and letters/phone calls while the guitar and a song would come out of the blue and therefore doesn’t have the same effect as finding out that Mike did write letters to Will [or my personal fave: wrote a letter to Will in 1983 which is signed “love, Mike” which they’ll find in the ud in s5] and did try to call him! The reveal of that is just a better payoff for all their fighting because it directly connects to what their fight was about and clears up the miscommunication.

But the guitar(s) in Mike’s room still exists. There is something to it so what I did is I looked up some guitar symbolism (I only found results for what guitars in dreams represent) and I found some interesting things which I think fit extraordinarily well with what Mike’s feeling and going through:

There is also a theme going on with a lot of props in Mike’s bedroom primarily hinting at his sexuality/gayness, as does the whole scene. So I actually also visited a site which described the guitar as a masculine instrument and that the sound of an electric guitar is also very masculine (and passionate) so the guitar(s) in Mike’s room could of course also hint at the fact that Mike is drawn to masculinity/attracted to men which makes even more sense when we remember that the show has already touched on the topic of sexual electricity while both guitars are surrounded by electricity (= the garbage pail kids card features the image of electricity tightly and directly connected to the electric guitar and our attention gets drawn to the acoustic guitar by a lamp which of course works with electricity and actually doesn’t have any need to be on during the day).

If you’ve read my post about the other garbage pail kids cards you’d know that all of them reflect something that happened to their respective st character (though I’m still unsure with Steve) (I am however sure that all of the cards reflect something that happened to each character as well as something personal about Mike since this is still his bedroom!) so Mike’s card probably also reflects some event from s4 and I personally think it’s the monologue! I also found something about what dreams about getting electrocuted by an electric guitar mean and what I found fits pretty well:

“Live Mike” (name of the garbage pail kids card) is only one letter away from “Love Mike” and during the monologue Mike finally tells El that he loves her but he only does this because Will’s last minute encouragement lead him to believe that El’s live depends on it! So he just starts saying things without actually thinking about them in a desperate attempt to save her life which horribly backfires and only causes more problems in the end! (For this we have to remember that the garbage pail kid in the card literally getting electrocuted while playing the guitar is something negative which is why it works well with this interpretation but doesn’t really make sense if it was to reflect a love confession via song and guitar in s5). Someone also pointed out that “Live Mike” is of course a play on “Live mic” so by turning on the microphone (starting to speak) Mike gets electrocuted (something negative happens = the monologue). The monologue is also of course connected to Mike’s personal internal struggle with his self worth and sexuality/identity and therefore it also connects to the card’s personal meaning for Mike.

#this is of course all my personal interpretation #do tell me what your interpretation is :))#st set design #stranger things #stranger things analysis #gay mike wheeler #mike wheeler #byler #byler tumblr #byler analysis

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henrysglock · 1 month

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Can't Get Enough Of The Fucking Mirror? Yeah, Me Neither.

So we all remember this, right?

link to post

Well ladies and gentlemen I am so very pleased to announce that the cameras in the mirror are fucked up once again:

Let's run that past the non-mirror dimension:

Never mind the everything else about these two shots. This ain't about her.

What a nice through-line: the mirror dimension is fucked!

#st nina project #st set design #stranger things

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itswhatyougive · 7 months

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Something something Steve is going to be food for Eddie in S5

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byler-alarmist · 8 months

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Random factoids: from her file in Ms. Kelley's office, it appears Chrissy Cunningham's birthday is 6/13/69 and her middle name is Elizabeth. She lives at 537 Breakwater Dr and her parents' names are Phillip and Laura. Looks like she was enrolled in Hawkins High in '82. Since she would only be turning 17 in 1986, maybe she skipped a grade? Also, ahe was doing badly in everything but PE.

HOWEVER, in her file at NINA, it says her home address is 82 Poplar Tree Rd.

@aemiron-main is this some more timeline fuckery or meddling on the part of Owens/Brenner??

#chrissy cunningham #stranger things #st set design #st meta #time fuckery #?#st theory #stranger things season 5 theories #stranger things theory #stranger things theories #nina #papa

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aemiron-main · 1 year

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the creels’ disappearing door and magic, colour-changing wallpaper

So, we’re not only seeing two different versions of the Creel murders in Dear Billy and The Massacre at Hawkins Lab- we’re also seeing two different Creel houses entirely. In chatting with @henrysglock, there’s some noticeable differences, but specifically, one room.

See that room in front of “Henry”? The one with the white door in it and the green wallpaper?

Yeah, that’s this room:

They are 100%, absolutely, undeniably, the same room in the same part of the house. The Creel house can be a maze sometimes, but this part of the layout is undeniable.

But if those are the same room, then where did the door go? And why did the walls change from green to red?

I would be willing to bet that the UD version of the Creel house has green wallpaper in that room, with a white door. As well, Max and Lucas are in the timeline where Victor talked about Henry, and are also in the timeline where the wallpaper is red.

Meaning that this guy, whose house has the green wallpaper:

Is Edward.

There’s also something rattling in my brain about Henry/Edward having two almost identical cardigans, the only difference being that one is red and one is green.

Max and Lucas also talk about a door to a secret lair when they’re in that room- a room that just happens to have a door that disappeared. A door, that interestingly enough, would have led to Victor’s study.

And when we see the UD version of the Creel house, the entry to that room is conveniently hidden every time.

Here it is, cut JUST out of view by the camera angle:

Here it is again, it’s hidden by Nancy’s head this time:

#stranger things #edward creel #henry creel #st creel timeline weirdness #creel family #st set design

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