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chirpsythismorning · 28 days

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Fun fact: In the original pitch for Stranger Things, El had a little brother.

After being rejected by almost 20 studios for the Montauk pilot, the Duffers were finally green-lit by Netflix. It was at this time that they began casting and then writing the first season officially, which included reworking a lot of that first episode.

This led to the removal of the brother reference, and with it, removing any sort of arc El could have had about her apparent brother.

But the thing about this moment, is that it might not have been scrapped entirely...

Going into the final season, no one can explain why or how El recognized Will back in 1x02. And while there are plenty of things on the show that are left unexplained, with a small portion likely left that way with the intention to uncover it later, what sets this moment apart from the rest is that there are very few possibilities here.

Because for starters, the story presents El's ability to see people in the void in s1 as requiring either a picture of that person for reference, or having met that person before.

But when El see's this picture of Will, she's never met him before. Or maybe she has, but we wouldn't know because they never showed us. They could have just not done this scene at all, given that it's clearly a copy/paste/edit of something scrapped from the pitch. Or they could have even still included it, but explained it.

One explanation could be that the lab had shown El a picture of Will before, similar to what they did with the Russian agent they wanted to spy on. But then that begs to question, why would the lab show El a picture of Will? Why would they want to see what he was doing? That alone is incriminating in and of itself, implying that Will is more connected to the lab than we realize.

The only other, and frankly most likely explanation, would be that El stumbled across Will at some point on her journey between escaping the lab and Will going missing. This is actually something that happens in The Other Side comic, which explores all the things Will may have experienced during his time in the Upside Down.

Though it’s worth noting the comics aren’t technically canon, and I highly doubt they would outright spoil everything in relation to Will’s time there, years before it was intended to be revealed. But still, let's humor this for a moment given that I do think Will's time in the UD is going to be very relevant in s5, which means it's highly likely they will finally address how exactly El saw him.

Basically, in the comic, Will see’s El walking through the woods, almost apparition like, glowing as she passes by, while also sporting the Benny’s burgers shirt. This means they would have crossed passed within a short span of time, between when El escaped Benny’s when the agents arrived, but before she was found by the boys.

Though it’s worth noting that we’re seeing this all from Will’s perspective. This means from the UD, Will was capable of seeing El on the other side, despite them being on different sides. And not only that, but she also looks back at him.

What confuses me about this, is that it doesn’t make sense for El to be in the woods, only to randomly decide to pop in to the void for a moment. She was trying to escape the lab and everything that came with it. I doubt she had any desire to lurk back there for some reason, not until someone encouraged her to. Not to mention, it would make no sense for her to go there and see Will if she wasn't even looking for him in the first place. And so this would mean Will and El could see each other, with Will being in the UD, and El being on the other side.

While it does seem pretty far off, given that you would think Will and El wouldn't be able to see each other from different sides, it is true in the story that El not only recognizes Will, but knows that he is in danger. She mentions that he is hiding specifically.

Which means she has likely seen him within the last 24 hours regardless.

This, in combination with Will being able to respond to El in the void at the end of the season in Castle Byers, when no one else outside of Terry and flayed-Billy have been able to, seems to imply that there is indeed something special about Will that makes him capable of communicating with El from the UD. Not only that, but El also seems to have an ability to be in this constant knowing state of how Will is doing, without even checking again to confirm. She's just certain of it. And she seems terrified about it.

Going forward, El never uses a picture of Will to find him. She never did. And more often than not, they don’t show us what she see’s either, not until the very end. And that’s the moment they reveal that he was able to communicate with her.

Again, there was really no reason to have El recognize Will. If anything it complicates things. But the fact that they chose to introduce this concept, with a scene from the original pitch that was related to El’s younger brother, with her pointing at his name cryptically, startling Benny, only to revamp it and have El not say anything at all while pointing at the picture of Will, startling Mike… It just really makes you stop and think.

Which brings me to the other aspect of this that might have people doubting, which is that El’s brother was originally younger than her.

We know Will is not younger than El, so how could this apply to him?

Well, it might be helpful to consider that in the original script, El was actually 10 years old, while the boys were always 12. Meaning that for some reason, they decided to age her up to the age of the boys, aka the same age as Will…

Ever since @erikiara80 shared this brother discovery with me, I have been sort of reeling. It then led to other little discoveries of changes they made between Montauk and Stranger Things.

It’s important to understand that the Montauk bible and the original script precedes what we ended up with in the final product, with it finally changing and evolving months, maybe even a year since that original vision. Even casting occurred before writing started for the first season. We know this because casting announcements were made in June and August of 2015, with writing not starting until August going into early 2016, simultaneously while they were filming.

And believe it or not, what I've discovered is that a lot of the changes they made between their original plans and what we see in the final product, have to do with not only Willel, but also Byler.

If you've read the original script for Montauk, you'll know that Mike's crush on Jennifer Hayes was focused on right from the jump, along with the birthmark on his face being focused on, which was the main cause of the bullying he experienced.

This has actually been talked about recently, and some of the claims people make do fit with what I am genuinely starting to consider here, which is that the initial plan for what makes Mike an outcast shifted.

I think when they completed casting, and started actually deep diving into what they wanted this world to look like, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint, they were presented with some pretty interesting discoveries, arguably already hiding in their initial plans without realizing it.

And this is where it sort of becomes a 'chicken or the egg' situation. Because which one came first? Byler or Willel?

I can't say for certain, because obviously this is all just speculation. But in the case that Willel came first, I think Byler would come very naturally after that.

The Duffers themselves are twins. Then they hire Noah, who is a twin. Then they're thinking and planning for El's past and how her family all fits into this, and they're thinking... wait a damn minute... We could totally Star Wars this bitch!

And then when they think it couldn't get any better, they uncover another layer that they hadn't planned or really considered in their initial plans.

While Will was always going to have sexual identity issues according to the Montauk bible, meaning that the writing process for him likely involved sitting down imagining scenarios that encapsulated this arc for Will from the beginning, they were simultaneously now finding very interesting aspects of Mike's character that made it hard not to at least consider the possiblity that Mike is not exactly straight.

Just think about it. The Byers and Wheelers are basically polar opposites on the spectrum of what a family looks like. While Will's discovery and acceptance of his queerness is interesting to explore because he comes from a low-income, single-mom household, all while having been bullied for years based on his perceived queerness, he also has a mother and brother constantly reinforcing that they will accept him no matter what. They've been sort of hitting us over the head with it for years, and so it wouldn't be very satisfying for his entire arc to merely lead up to something we've known all along. It's pretty much a given at this point.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mike comes from a more upper-middle class family at the end of a cul-de-sac, more aligned with what a nuclear family looks like. Mike's family is also presented as being more conservative, and while Karen does give that very queer-coded speech to Mike in s1 (I'm convinced they only wrote this after deciding to explore queer-coding more heavily with Mike), it also comes with comments from Ted and even still Karen that hint that they are probably not as open-minded and accepting as Will's family is to him. Which means Mike's arc would be a lot more about acceptance around him from his loved ones who we have been led to believe might not be as accepting of his queerness in contrast to Will.

And so as they're putting this story together, and they're being presented with something very interesting. Two similar experiences that play out in different ways because of the characters circumstances.

Will goes missing, and his twin sister with a buzzcut pops up and has the ability to help them find Will.

This leads to several moments where El is being compared to as not only a boy, but Will as well.

Now suddenly, their initial plans to have Mike's arc be about having a girl be interested in him and to hopefully have his first kiss and feel like less of a loser, starts to look a lot like what the experience a queer kid in his position might encounter growing up in the environment that he did.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, just hear the Duffer's themselves hinting at what they initially planned for Mike and the fact that it changed.

The changes don't stop there.

Believe it or not, 'It was a seven', did not exist in the initial pitch. When the boys went outside bickering over Nancy, they leave right after that.

Another thing that changed from the first script, was Scott Clarke's introduction:

And so you might be thinking, who cares? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's interesting because the line we end up with on the show is arguably one of the most on the nose Twelvegate proofs to date. Mind you, this is from the first episode:

Why chuck the original version, which was arguably more interesting and fascinating in terms of it hinting at the mysteriousness surrounding this story, only to replace it with him listing off tips about their upcoming test?

Well, I think it's the irony of it all. Here Mr. Clarke is practically telling us where to look to figure stuff out for ourselves what is going on, with all the kids filing out and ignoring him...

I relate to Scott a litttle too much in this shot here, any time I try to drop Willel evidence.

And the changes go on, as they obviously would.

Things like Terry Ives not even being El's mom, but actually a man who more so aligns with the characterization of Murray.

And one very interesting one I almost overlooked was in Hopper's introduction, where instead of a kids drawing done by who we assume to be Sarah, we actually see a picture on the wall of him and his wife and daughter... Interesting that they decided to switch it something that is a lot less definitive in presenting what Hopper's past looked like...

If you've made it this far, congratulations.

If you still think I'm out of my mind, just remember that El was going to have a brother in the original script, but they scrapped the scene and gave a near identical one to introduce her connection to Will instead 😘

#byler #stranger things #willel twins #twelvegate #montauk #as you can see #i am out of my mind #and i'm okay with that #i've spent the last couple months trying to make a video going over all the willel twin evidence #and i can't decide if it's even possible to do without going over an hour #like there is just so much shit that fits too perfectly into this family being ripped apart by mind control and time shenanigans #i hope to have it done soon #trying to make it less than 20 minutes #but it's probably going to end up being closer to an hour #especially with this stuff from the montauk pitch being added to the mix now #anyways #willel and byler are the curtain behind the curtain #if you are open to one of them #you are bound to stumble across the other #and they don't want that to happen #stay tuned for the inevitable twin imagery to continue in s5 related to willel leading up to the big reveal #bc it's arguably the most consistent thing about this damn show #and tbh this all just makes the queer-coding for mike in s1 a lot more concrete to me #them exploring will's queerness through his dad's expectations for him to do more 'manly' things like play baseball #and jonathan saying he shouldn't like things just bc people telll him he's supposed to #how they connect that narratively with the boys being at a baseball field when mike's being pressured about his supposed feelings for el #with the bullies showing up and literally being homophobic seconds later #the fact that jennifer hayes did in fact exist in the original pilot and was the girl mike had a crush on #only for them to scrap that and just make it about her having a crush on will...#never once introducing this idea of mike liking her...

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fish-boy-ardee · 10 months

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Kazui Mukuhara is Gay - Milgram Theory

Firstly, before I start 2nd Trial voice drama translations from @onigiriico https://www.tumblr.com/onigiriico/723866431247220736/kazui-audio-drama-t2-english-tl

So! Cat is out and the gay Kazui theory has very quickly become something I thought was a meme to being something I believe fully in. I wanna go through each piece of evidence and point in the theory in the most thorough manner I can. But for people who don't wanna read this long ass post.

TL;DR: Kazui's 2nd MV uses a lot of imagery that depicts him as an odd one out and shows him ripping apart a white dove, a common symbol at marriages. His voice drama implies he has been lying about himself and stopped lying which his wife to killed herself in response. His acting motif from his first video makes it appear he was acting in his marriage out of obligation for heteronormativity.

Now. The meat.

The Apples. These are a constant in Kazui's videos. In trial one we saw the green apple to represent Kazui and a red apple for his wife, with the red one shattering when she died. However what cat does is put that into perspective. Preceding the shot on the right we see Kazui's marriage and all the people who attended, drawing parallels immediately.

In half we see Kazui represented as a green apple, or sour apple. But in Cat we see that red and green disparity, painting him as an odd one out. He is different from everyone there and is trying to fit into that crowd. Every mask he puts on is an attempt to blend more into that norm and not be an odd one out in society. What do we see Kazui as in his own reflection in Cat? A sour apple, the odd one out.

"Let's Keep it Simple" Or Societal Norms One of the biggest aspects of Kazui is his relation to acting, stage magic in this video and stage acting in the first one. Both are used to imply forms of lying on his part but what those lies were about are still a bit unclear however we can assume things.

Everyone at Kazui's marriage are paired up (minus the middle guy but we will get to that). @ older people, 2 younger people on the left and then even the background characters can be made into groups of two. This is also at his wedding meaning these are the people Kazui is most likely closest to, everyone around him pairing off can push people into marriages out of pressure of those around them. Not to mention Kazui's age, being born at a time where not pairing off would be seen as odd is another push.

Additionally the line "Victim and Perpetrator" in the MV is set up to play into expectations of marriages and cheating. The man is the perpetrator of the affair the the wife is the victim stereotypical. Based on where the text is it could imply either line is talking about who the text is covering or who is shown at the time. BOTH wife and husband here are both victim and verpetrator in this scenario, both are pushed into a pressured relationship and both push the other into it.

That Damn Bar(tender) aka the long section The bar from Kazui's first video has appeared in every one of his MVs. It's a pretty pivotal location in his life since we know the MVs take from the prisoners mind directly implying locations that show up in great detail have been very relevent in the persons life. The bar could mean many things, Kazui could be a host, it could be where he finds woman to cheat with. BUT! Based on his voice drama Kazui says he never committed infidelity, and based on his emotional outburst I am inclined to believe it

So what the hell was that bar about? And if it was infidelity then who was he confessing to in this shot- what where was he drinking that type of drink again- at the bar. But if he wasn't cheating on his wife that means he got rejected? These shots are preceding by Kazui admitting to being drunk, meaning he would have a harder time putting on a mask and lying due to his state. But him getting rejected by a woman wouldn't have made him need to come clean to his wife, nor should it have caused her massive reaction to his attempt at cheating if he was honest with her.

Remember that one dramatic shot of Kazui dropping the glass? It can be assumed that was still at the bar and most likely would be following him getting rejected by whoever he was talking to.

Now, who was the ONE man at Kazui's wedding that had a ring that wasn't paired off.

The bartender. Milgram only shows facial features when needed, and avoids adding lookalikes due to this, everyone shown is important in some way. Potentially worth noting is that the Bartender appears to be at Kazui's marriage with a ring but is ringless in half (either a divorce, he was never married and the ring in cat is symbolic of Kazui's pressure or desire, or just a detail not included in half since its side character) What is 100% wort noting however, is Kazui's line of sight in half. Remember Milgram doesn't show people for no reason so why the bartender in half? The shots would have worked just as well without him there. Well, trace Kazui's sight line. Following his eyes lead the viewer to-

-the bartender.He talked to women at the bar but he went there to be close to the bartender. All of his shots have his sight line in that direction, even when the bartender is not in frame. When viewed from the audience seats following his eyes across the stage will always lead you to him.

Conclusion

I have covered that Kazui feels like the odd one out in society, that his marriage was pressured due to external forces and a heavily implied rejection from another man, so whats the point? Well if I am correct Kazui's experience mirrors a lot of my own in getting multiple girls into relationships with me in some bid to find that I was straight and just haven't found the right one. No one was just a "victim" and no one was just a "perpetrator" it was a messy situation that no one benefited from. Like the video states, the way I am "I can't be normal" in the eyes of society. If that's the the case then I have two choices. I can lie about this and keep pretending to be happy with the way things are and not rock the boat or-

-I can be honest with my feelings and tell the truth to those who got wrapped up in me figuring myself out, regardless the consequences of what others do with that information. If some how that decision was linked to that person killing themselves-

I would also find it hard to forgive myself and tell the truth again too.

#karpramblings #milgram #kazui mukuhara #mukuhara kazui #suicide ment #tw suicide #tw suicide ment #milgram music videos #milgram kazui #also sorry for being insane but. the shot of kazui ripping that bird apart #is making me feel insane in a good way #like sir??? is that needed?? no. but he did it anyway and like if he wants to be feral i am here for it #karpblorbo

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