Nancy wheeler, the woman that you are

What if Argyle is the true wild card, like he's the only one that remembers that it was Will's birthday or other details like that because Henry/Vecna/One didn't know about him?

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.

How can people say color theory isn’t real when this photo exists

I uploaded the It’s Always Sunny in Hawkins video on YouTube if anyone wants to check it out!

I also uploaded the Smalltown Boy x Running Up That Hill mashup on there a while ago just because SoundCloud probably isn’t the best place for fans to discover it, so feel free to check that out there too!

And I do plan to make more videos on there, maybe some of my analysis/theories from Tumblr in video form! So stay tuned for that if you’re interested!

Ummmm, hello???

From s1 ep1, when Joyce and Jonathan are looking through photos to put on Will’s missing poster. And there sits a photo of the Hawkins Library clock, right in the middle of the photos of Will. The same library clock that rings four times when Jonathan is yelling to Joyce about Will’s funeral — where Will is found and resuscitated — and where Vecna’s four gates intersect . . . 

Insane bit of foreshadowing with the “have you seen me?” directly next to the clock image, which is where Will is found.

From The Smithsonian's article on Nuclear Winter.

Hey uh guys... about Watergate. There's no water in the Upside Down. The tunnels avoided Lover's Lake and all other rivers. Erica had that line about how you need water to survive. Argyle asked Mike if his shirt was Ocean Pacific. Mike was sat in front of the Jaws poster in his heart to heart with Will. Mike jumped off the cliff in season 1 into the quarry. What if....

What if we're only assuming that the way to kill Vecna and defeat the Upside Down is though fire. What if the truth is that the Upside Down and Vecna are allergic to water. What if in season 5 Mike figures out that the only way to truly defeat the Upside Down is by drowning it out. Boiling Water, perhaps?

Song & Scene Analysis, Lumax vs Byler

I've also posted this on the Byler Subreddit, so if you see it there, hi, that's me!

I’m sure you’re aware of song importance in Stranger Things, with the Duffer Brothers saying sometimes it takes weeks to pick a song that conveys the exact message they’re trying to portray. I’ve seen quite a bit of theories around what songs mean what, but there’s one specific song that caught my attention.

There’s a scene in season two, episode six where Lucas and Max speak on top of a bus in the junkyard. It’s a lovely scene in which Max explains her behavior to Lucas, and apologizes for some stuff she wasn’t proud of. She says she’s sorry for acting like a jerk, and doesn’t ever want to be like that, but she feels overwhelmed with her home life and takes it out on people she doesn’t mean to. She then expresses that she likes California, and sometimes wants to go home, but having Lucas there with her for comfort makes her feel better. Max makes a call back to their “Stalker” joke, with a shared laugh. This emotional scene is then cut off by the sighting of a demodog, and a tense scene plays.

Now you know the base of the conversation, let me tell you about a similar scene I see as a parallel. Season four, episode four bedroom talk. This scene is between Mike and Will, where Mike apologizes to Will. In his apology he says he’s sorry for acting like a jerk, but everything with El was just so overwhelming, and he doesn’t want Will to feel like their argument was personal. Mike explains to Will that he likes it in Hawkins, but since Will moved to California, Hawkins feels different. He misses Will. They share a “Cool” with each other and sit in silence while smiling, but are cut off by the doorbell as Jack’s men come searching for El.

These scenes may not feel as similar as I'm insisting with just this information, but there’s a very key portion to this parallel: Music.

I’m going to go through these scenes at the same time to help you understand where I’m coming from. At the current moments in time for these scenes, Lucas/Will have a like Max/Mike, but don’t know how to confront them about it. Max/Mike both apologize to Lucas/Will for hurting them when they didn’t mean to. Max/Mike say the reason they acted like this was because they felt overwhelmed with their lives at the moment. Max/Mike say that they like California/Hawkins, but without Lucas/Will, it wouldn’t be the same. Max/Mike make a callback to “Stalker/Cool”. Almost directly after these heartfelt talks, they’re interrupted with the intense Demodog/Goverment scenes. The same song plays in these scenes to further imply that we’re supposed to view them the same way. The camera slowly zooms closer on their reactions to help the audience understand better, and help it feel more intimate.

These are things you basically can’t deny, as I’m just stating the facts of these scenes. From all of these similarities and comparisons, we can also further suspect other aspects of these scenes. Something we’re allowed to assume is that, like Max, Mike also has feelings for Will. If the original scene including this song is meant to be interpreted as romantic, then why would the second be any different? If the original scene is meant to be read as a “romantic” and “intimate” apology, then why would the second scene suddenly be a purely platonic interaction? If they’d wanted us as an audience to think otherwise, then they would have chosen a different way to portray this scene.

I thank you greatly for listening to me rant about why this scene drove me crazy. I’ve been looking forward to posting this the moment I got tumblr, but with my very on fire Spongebob looking brain, I never remembered. I’d love love looooove to hear your thoughts and add ons to this, ESPECIALLY corrections if i’ve somehow misinterpreted something. I wouldn't want to spread misinformation. Have a good morning, afternoon, or night, folks.

Sharing one of my personal theories about Henry Creel’s body (where he is physically) and what they’re gonna do with him next season

🚨Okay, I feel the need to mention this thought process is only halfway complete, and I’ll probably add more onto it at some point, as well as reword this in the future to be more consumable but I need to get this down, in no way do I promise this to be good, also srry if people have already talked about this before, I don’t know every single post on this website, but I don’t wish to just make a shitty copy of someone else’s work🚨

Okay down to business

One of my personal theories is that Henry’s body is somehow in a coma similar to Max’s (El being unable to find Max in the “darkness”, El searching for Henry “in the darkness”, Papa saying El could “get lost in the darkness”)

Henry and Max being lost in the darkness, and El having to find them both

The main difference between them is that Henry was “plugged” into Nina well Max isn’t. Henry is being run through simulations well Max is merely “lost”.

@aemiron-main (srry for the @ but I gotta give credit where credits due) mentioned before that because we have reason to believe the Void exists in a place beyond space and time, we can assume that Nina could somehow be connected to the void (Nina and the void are NOT the same thing, but exist simultaneously through one another, through Henry)

Which MEANS well El is looking for Max in the darkness, she could very well finally find Henry there, especially if El did succeed in breaking the simulation last season (I haven’t done in-depth reads on any analysis on this yet so I’ll get back to this point in the future) because if El did manage it, that means that Henry is more then likely wondering/is lost in the darkness like how Max is.

Hell because of the connection between Henry and Vecbrenward ™️ it’s possible that he’s been at least somewhat “consumed” in the way that Henward describes in Nina, (“they’re still with me Eleven”) in the same way Max has been. Which means Henry’s physical body could very well be in a coma-type state in The Lab (like Max’s) well being “lost” in Nina. And thats why Henry was able to interact with El well Max isn’t, because of the Nina simulation specifically

There’s also a possibility that because of this, Eleven might have to lean on the lab (one of the many Brenners) AGAIN to be able to get Max back, to be able to connect her mind to a simulation so she can talk to her

Hdjrkjrkf I’m getting off track

So for season 5 I could see Henry being able to connect to Max, through the void, they might be able to communicate in a way about Vecna, about the void. I could totally see it being framed towards the audience in a way that Henry is trying to “manipulate” Max. Henry showing Max what actually happened to him. He may be able to connect El TO Max through piggy-backing logic. Henry and Max existing simultaneously in the same spot beyond time and space

Henry, El, and Max having to work together to wake both him and Max up

Henry and Max new power duo when???

This is a small theory I had so I won't count it as a main one (those I talked about in my "survey") but I wanted to point it out.

I was rewatching stranger things season 4 when I noticed AND remembered something.

In the last episode when Steve talks to Nancy in the Upside Down, talking about the dream that he wants six little nuggets and everything, he also said that he used to crawl backwards when he was a baby. In his two arms and two knees he was crawling, but not to move forward, but to move backwards.

So then, I remembered that The Duffers posted some tweet on Twitter back at the time when the filming for stranger things 5 didn't begin. They were still writing I think, but whatever, they posted the title of the first episode and it's called "The Crawl." Maybe we can connect the scene from ST4 and the title of the first episode of ST5. What if people or Steve, specifically, needs to do some sort of crawling, backwards, like he said, either to escape something, either something else. Since going backwards means going back to the beginning, going back to the past... something could happen with that? I'm not sure what exactly but it could be like some past events that we will be remembered, or past events that we will discover and that didn't appear directly in season 1. Or even something else.

I didn't see anyone talking about it, or maybe I'm just blind? Probably. So tell me your thoughts about this little theory!

Ronance + Mike headcanons?

Robin fully geeks out and absolutely adores the pictures Mike shows her of Nancy dressing up for his dnd campaign as an elf. Mike just enjoys watching his sister get embarrassed as he run around with the picture trying to keep it out of her grasp, but it’s far too late, Robin has every bit of the picture memorized.

Nancy and Mike always go to hangout with Robin and Steve whenever their parents are being homophobic dicks, it’s nice to be around people who love them for who they are, something that they struggle with a lot, the internalized homophobia.

Robin finds it hilarious whenever she compares Mike and Nancy and they get all angry snd pouty about it, claiming they’re nothing alike as they both say the exact same response and cross their arms in the same way.

Micheal Wheeler has finally learned to knock after walking in on a make out session, nothing explicit but enough to make his eyes burn and stomach curl. Nancy got her pay back by sneaking a picture of Will and Mike cuddled up and asleep to a movie they were watching.

Mike has very much taken advantage of his sisters new found desire to stop by Family video and pick out a movie whenever, they get them all free anyways…

Nancy and Robin will tease Mike in French, cause he took Spanish at school and for the most part can’t tell what they’re saying.

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

Me: ”Everyone has a right to make up theories and share them online. Not everyone have to be super deep inside the ST world and know everything other people have theorized and analyzed before. It’s fine to just be a low key fan and have fun with it.”

Also me: ”If I see one more person claiming that they just came up with a theory of Will Byers sacrificing himself in the end of s5 I’m gonna explode.”

A My Little Pony Hypothesis

Wrinkle in Time posting reminding me I never actually posted my own My Little Pony hypothesis because I meant to post it as part of a larger analysis of dragons in ST and then never did. lol. Anyway, I think the thing they're referencing with WiT may be one of the kids in that book letting himself be caught by the hivemind to locate their father and then getting left behind during the rescue mission, forcing the protagonist to come back and save him with the power of love. And the MLP references in the show actually also suggest (and therefore support) this version of events.

So in the MLP episode "Escape from Midnight Castle" the ponies are attacked by the evil centaur Tirek who also kidnaps four ponies to turn them into dragons to pull his chariot so he can subjugate the whole world with his Rainbow of Darkness. His plans are stalled because one of the kidnapped ponies is too small and he can't turn it. Meanwhile the protagonist ponies go to find the Rainbow of Light and then go to Tirek's castle to free their friends. While infiltrating the castle Applejack is captured and turned into a dragon. The ponies manage to stop Tirek last minute by overtaking the Rainbow of Darkness with the Rainbow of Light, which also turns everyone back into what they were. And all the ponies lived happily ever after.

So what's that got to do with Stranger Things? Well, Dustin explicity mentions the episode in S3 when he’s arguing with Erica about her status as a nerd, because Erica is into MLP and since that has nerdy stuff like castles and dragons she is a nerd. Erica then embraces that identity, gets into DnD, and names her character after Applejack. Who then ends up defeating Vecna in the S4 game...which made me wonder whether the MLP reference is actually important foreshadowing -- and who then is represented by Applejack. Personally I think Will is most likely, because while “getting turned into a dragon” does fit Max in S4 I think Max is actually the too small pony from the initial four that get kidnapped: Vecna’s first attempt to kill her didn’t work and even the second one isn’t quite complete, he just separated her consciousness from her body by the looks of it.

This is also why I think it’ll be Will. At the end of S4 we see El trying to find Max to get her to wake up, but she can’t find her. That’s not gonna change by her trying harder in S5, so I think if they want to go find Max they need to go into Vecna/The Mindflayer’s head and find her there (and i think that may be one of the priorities in the first half of S5 because of the heavy Star Wars parallels we got elsewhere). And the only person who was part of it before is Will, so I think she’ll end up piggybacking in through his mind. Plus that would let Will’s promise of “fix it together” from 4.01 come true. It also resembles the way the ponies infiltrate the castle in MLP AND Charles Wallace letting IT control him so he can find his father. In both WiT and MLP this rescue mission doesn’t quite go the way it was intended. Applejack gets kidnapped and turned into a dragon and Charles Wallace is left behind as part of the hivemind while the other kids get out with their father. Both of them are later saved by their friends, Charles Wallace explicitly with love, and Applejack with a very thin metaphor for it. 

These themes are obviously also present in Stranger Things and people have already pointed out this similarity (and this potential plot) in relation to WiT, but I think it’s interesting to note that the DnD game which clearly foreshadows the events of S5 also references a piece of media that also has this type of plot. I also think the whole love vs. hate/anger thematic also points to Will because the topic of (romantic) love is important for his character arc in a way that it isn’t for others. El also wants love but her’s is familial and tbh with the return of Hopper I think her S5 arc will be taking the love she knows she has and turning it on Vecna. Will on the other hand is wanting, and I think vulnerable on that level -- but also a formidable foe once he realizes he can have everything he wants. Which is also a great way of involving their personal arcs and the love triangle in the supernatural plot. 

Tl, dR: I think the theory that the writers posting about WiT means Will is gonna help El find Max and then get stuck in the hivemind, needing to be rescued with (Mike’s) love are very likely because the show references an episode of MLP multiple times, including in the foreshadowing of the DnD game, in which that exact plot also happens. And I’m very excited about it because I have been turning this idea over in my head for weeks now and I love it.