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dish 🌆

#not stranger things #pixel art #miscellaneous

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This season above all will be a redemption arc of the American nuclear family.

This is such a great take.

I've had a hard time figuring out how exactly they're going to handle Mike's arc in S5. He's clearly struggling with something and the show just won't let us into his head -- but hey, what a coincidence, the villain's modus operandi just so happens to involve getting inside people's heads and tormenting them with their own secrets. Mike's getting Vecna'd, right?

I mean... maybe? It makes sense.

But like you say, Byler's dynamic has always been about visibility vs. invisibility, and Mike's invisibility has always kept him safe from the horrors. Even if he does get targeted by Vecna -- S5 Mike is to Will as S4 Nancy is to Max. Mike is simply not going to be a focus for Vecna in the way Will is.

The Satanic Panic plot seems like a more promising avenue for really getting into the nitty-gritty of what Mike's been dealing with, and having Holly and the Wheeler family's struggle with conformity be what ties it all to the supernatural is just the perfect way to give Mike an arc that lets him self-actualize on his own terms instead of being reduced to a prize for Will.

Thoughts on "Escape from Camazotz"

Oppressive Suburbia, Conformity, and Season 5 Themes

I've long thought that a major focus of Season 5 will be the contrast between the families of The Wheelers and The Byers, and exploring how non-traditional family environments can be freeing vs the oppressive structure of the nuclear family.

In a Wrinkle In Time, Camazotz is a planet controlled by the big bad of the book, the "IT", who forces the citizens into a conformity that resembles American suburbia. All of the houses the same, the citizens the same, doing the same things at the same time without individual identity. Without anything different. Different means a lot of things, but with Stranger Things dropping different in reference to Will's identity and the presumable themes of this season, it will heavily codify as queerness and how it threatens the cisheterosexual family model.

Henry was raised in the 1950s, a decade still revered by conservatives for it's traditional family dynamics that supposedly were the peak of culture and happiness for all. That was all a lie, of course, and Henry knew so as he shows to Nancy and Eleven during his monologue. The second most conservative decade aside from the 1950s in American society is widely considered to be the 1980s.

The Creels will serve in parallel to The Wheelers; the worst example of what they could become and the damage that this type of family could do to a child that is different in any way. Notice how Vecna selectively shows Nancy visions of The Wheelers dying, but not anyone else she may consider family or friends (like Jonathan).

That is; unless they change their ways and come together as a healthy functioning family facing their traumas, The Wheelers will be toast.

Karen has been moved up to a main character role this season. Ted's actor says the father starts to show up more for Holly (hold that) and realizes he wants to act differently. Holly has been recast. Finn has said Mike goes on a much more personal journey this season, and steps up as a leader.

Oh, also: the catalyst for all of this is that Holly goes missing. The contrast will help show how the Byers (including El and Hopper here) were able to pull together and help solve Will's disappearance, versus how the Wheelers as a closed off nuclear family grapple with Holly's vanishing.

Each of the Byers is in some kind of a non-1950s conformist relationship, but particularly Will (not in one now but we all know he will be). I think El might represent, after she breaks up with Mike, the fear of the unmarried woman being satisfied without a husband. The above shot really emphasizes my point.

I predict that Will will end up coming out to his family rather early on, and we will see all of them immediately accept him with little surprise or push-back. Will is a visible gay man who comes from an open minded non traditional family (divorced, non-married, adoptive) that is willing to have honest conversations.

But this theme will place the most focus on the Wheelers. Mike is the main character of said family and this will particularly focus on his arc, and his acceptance of his queerness in the midst of suburban conformity.

He is not visible, he comes from a Reagan-supporting family who don't communicate with each other. He is not particularly close with his family like Will is. He pushes his feelings down and tries his damn hardest to be normal despite it all. His trauma hasn't really been addressed at all. He is falling back into his usual habits - the one thing he dared to do different (grow his hair long) has gone back to how it was.

It's not all doom and gloom though. This season above all will be a redemption arc of the American nuclear family, how they choose to escape their conformity and learn to be there for each other, thus overpowering Vecna. Not that the Wheelers are going to end this personally.

"Great, more hysteria. Just what we need". "It's the news, now indistinguishable from the tabloids".

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #holly wheeler #karen wheeler #ted wheeler #will byers #reblogged analysis

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TL;DR: HNL was studying how to give human subjects electromagnetic, most specifically visible light based, powers in order to bend space-time for their needs.

I’m going to try and condense this as much as I can because considering electromagnetism as a major force in ST (pun intended) opens up so many potential areas of analysis that can only be a brief cover of without turning into multiple essays.

Let’s go over the electromagnetic spectrum:

I hope you might already be recognizing some symbols we see often in Stranger Things, especially if you’ve been following the BTS and some location and set leaks from Season 5.

The electromagnetic spectrum encompasses the different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation - waves of energy that travel at the speed of light (and produce visible light to us at certain frequencies). You’ve probably heard of most of these, including cancer-causing gamma rays and x-rays, the visible light spectrum (the rainbow), microwaves, and radio waves.

In S5, we have the radio station as a main location for the characters. They’re also driving around in the radio station’s van, which has an image of a hawk emitting a rainbow (visible light radiation). Steve’s car also has a massive antenna on top of it. My first thoughts were that the team was trying to keep in contact with Max in hopes of her being able to hear them in her coma, considering she has a radio near her bedside. While that still may be a reason, I think the characters may have come to realize how important electromagnetic fields could be in their fight against Vecna (this where leader of the AV Club also focused on electromagnetic objects Scott Clarke may make his triumphant return).

Now to pivot onto why electromagnetism is so important to the lore of ST:

What the scientists in Hawkins Lab are likely studying is a way for human brains to produce or manipulate certain types of electromagnetic waves through telepathy. Most obviously this is seen by them having the kids try to manipulate and turn on a circle of light bulbs. Our brains actually already produce electromagnetic waves, but at a very slow frequency. The scientists are constantly measuring brain waves while conducting these experiments. We even get full shots of El’s brain waves during NINA, for example. We also see similar shots in S2 while Will is in the HNL.

You can also observe that the Hawkins National Laboratory has absolutely massive satellite dishes on it’s rooftop; ones that do not exist on the real life building but are added in post because they pose some sort of significance. Nudge, it’s because they are transmitting and receiving massive amounts of electromagnetic waves.

Why are they studying electromagnetic waves then?

They are studying electromagnetic waves because they are a method in which time travel can theoretically be achieved - the focus of the Montauk Project in which Stranger Things is based on. The military likely is investigating time travel as another war tactic against Russia.

Let us take a look at the first chapter of the Montauk Project: Experiments in Time book (they are seriously plagiarizing the living hell out of this thing):

Also, did you catch the whole 'attaching a massive antenna on the hood of my car to pick up a secret signal' thing? That's suspiciously similar to the state of Steve's car! Anyway...

The story of Stranger Things starts chronologically, as does Montauk, with the disappearance of the USS Eldridge and Project Rainbow (named after the bending of the visible light spectrum). Brenner’s father was revealed to have captained the boat in TFS, which disappeared for 12 hours into Dimension X and when it came back, the crew was killed or driven mad (except for Brenner Sr). This inspires Brenner to continue onto the Nevada project, and eventually, Hawkins National Lab’s studies. The USS Eldridge / Philadelphia Project conspiracy from real life went as follows:

They were studying electromagnetism, specifically the bending of light, to make objects invisible. This was only the first step in the experiments. Once Henry got involved and came back from his trip to Dimension X with powers, Brenner must have realized he could potentially use human subjects to manipulate electromagnetic fields themselves. Human subjects didn’t require machinery or set up and could bend space-time wherever they pleased, as long as they were able to learn the ability.

The more conspiratiorial side of Theoretical Physics proposes using circulating light beams to warp time-space, creating a wormhole in which one can literally walk through time. This is pop-science, likely not true but interesting for fiction purposes. This method of time travel being used is heavily implied due to the fact that the USS Eldridge was already able to disappear into another dimension by the bending of light.

This is how it worked in the Montauk Project book (absolutely ridiculous how much they took from this honestly):

My guess is that in the Stranger Things universe, they have not yet managed to time travel, only to create portals into this alien Dimension X. Previously, said portals were only made twice by highly advanced technological equipment. El demonstrated that she was able to open a portal all by herself - another step to achieving time travel with singular human subjects. Season five is when we will see the beginning of the time travel plot line, though it like in Montauk is likely already in a loop.

That’s where we get the name for the Rainbow Room, named after this Project Rainbow. The rainbow represents the full spectrum of visible light, and the goals of the project to bend said light into portals and eventually time travel wormholes.

Implications?:

-Well, first of all it seems very obvious by this point that we are going for a time travel plot line, and this is how it will be achieved.

-Will is heavily connected to light in general, the sun, and of course… the rainbow. He is also implied be the one involved in the time travel plot line. This will be very relevant going forward and deserves it’s own post. Potential funniness of defeating Vecna with the power of the rainbow afoot.

-Coma patients are known to have odd, barely detectable brain waves. The kids will be able to communicate with Max in her coma using the electromagnetic spectrum somehow, probably through the radio waves.

-On the farthest end of the spectrum, we have ionizing gamma ray radiation, which is known to cause cancer in humans. Expect Hopper’s daughter Sara to connect to this plot line (and perhaps Sam Owens’ dead son). There is a whole theory on this site already called radiationgate. I have not managed to look into it yet but I think they are probably onto something there. The original al pitch mentions the UD leakage into the real world causing cancer as well.

#stranger things #time travel #reblogged analysis

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I didn’t post this earlier cause I went on a walk but oh well I’m posing it now so

hi. more Will content.

enjoy it or not ummmm idk. yeah

#red collar symbolism my beloved #stranger things #will byers #fanart

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💌💌

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #fanart

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whats your opinion on the UD being frozen as a metaphor for will's childhood and so when it's all released, he'll be free of it and therefore maybe his love for mike is still chaste and childish and that when it's all over he'll have released that love too?

with neither mike nor el or will ending up in a romantic pair at all.

Hi anon, thanks for the ask!

I'm a subscriber to the theory that the Upside Down is frozen because of Will's immaturity, but I don't agree that letting go of his love for Mike is how he solves it.

The thing about the Upside Down is that while it works well as a metaphor for Will's immaturity, it's also seething with, um... maturity. Penetrating vines, monsters with engulfing holes for faces, yonic gashes in the walls; Will's encounter with the place abounds with references to Alien, a franchise famous for its male sexual anxiety metaphors.

Pretty heavy stuff for a 12 year-old.

But unsurprising: Will has been exposed to extreme homophobia all his life, and his future as a sexually mature gay man who "deserves" that treatment scares the shit out of him. The horrors Will faces aren't a metaphor for any old trauma; they're specifically about the trauma of growing up gay in the 80s.

And I'm not making this claim on the strength of a few Alien references. Throughout the show, Will's feelings for Mike have been deeply entwined with The Horrors -- I won't rehash the specifics here, but you can check out this post for examples and this post for a discussion of queer romance in horror.

Ultimately, what it boils down to is that Will's love isn't chaste because he's a late bloomer, but because he's too frightened and ashamed to fully embrace his sexuality. And so long as he holds on to that fear, the horrors will keep coming back.

So, given all this... which do you suppose would be the mature version of Will best suited to cleansing the Upside Down?

One who's swallowed the pain of being queer and alone?

Or one who's bold and unashamed about being in love with a boy?

#stranger things #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #my analysis #ask

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mike “Will is in Distress So I’m in Distress™” wheeler

part 1 of 2

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #miscellaneous

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S2 shed scene -- Will/Vecna POV -- part 2 of 2.

[Finally finished the Bylerween comic! And only *checks watch* six months late!]

#bylerween2023 #day 3 #will's possession #stranger things #byler #will byers #henry creel #mind flayer #pixel art #fanart #my art #tw immolation

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Mr. Wheeler (S5) expression practice

#stranger things #mike wheeler #fanart

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The birthday boy!

#stranger things #will byers #pixel art #fanart #my art

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"It feels like such a basic thing, but it’s something that I actually don’t see that often."

Marie celebrates one year of gifmaking remaking my first set ever

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #miscellaneous

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It’s “realizing that Will’s struggle in S2 with being infected with a virus that spreads and will kill him quickly (but doctors don’t care) is a metaphor for how gay men were treated during the aids crisis” hours

—right alongside Mike (who comes from a family with a Reagan sign in their front yard + a mom who outwardly supported Margret Thatcher), who sat at his now confirmed gay best friend’s side the entire time he was sick and watched as people were willing to let him die because he was viewed as expendable……and now has an ongoing storyline where

1) his relationship with his girlfriend is falling apart because he doesn’t love her romantically

2) he’s staring longingly and pushing toward the freedom his gay best friend embodies for him, and

3) he cannot bring himself to tell anyone around him something because “what if they don’t like it” + dehumanize him for telling the secret truth he cannot bring himself to externalize, despite now knowing something that scares him about about himself:

(Bonus points for the fact that the first time we see Mike push Will and himself toward a girl is after he watches how people were willing to let his gay best friend (and him, by extension) die should they not confirm to expectations)

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #reblogged analysis

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Happy Birthday Will Byers!

#stranger things #will byers #fanart

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Will Byers and his iconic red collar

#stranger things #will byers #henry creel #demogorgon #pixel art #fanart #my art

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[WIP] another mike comin at ya hopefully today

#stranger things #mike wheeler #fanart

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byler x hugs

missing them (-19 days)

#stranger things #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #miscellaneous

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i do often think about the poetic implications of castle byers, a symbol of childhood escapism and safety, being destroyed during a traumatic moment by the demogorgon which could represent a myriad of things subtextually, yet it persists in the real world for a while until its destruction is self-inflected by will himself

#stranger things #will byers #castle byers #reblogged analysis