took me about an hour and I’m really proud of it. (the blacked out part is my signature by the way)

This is part of a series where I uncover what Stranger Things is really about. It started from trying to find out what happened in 1979 aka what all the depictions of traumatic past memories (El, Henry, Billy, Max, Holly, etc.) are truly about, but expanded to this all-encompassing theory of the whole series with crazy levels of complexity, metaphors and layers. Reading it will require commitment and patience but I promise it will be worth your time if you want to look behind the curtain (and the curtain behind that curtain) and fully understand the show. You have to read all parts in order: here is PART 1 and here all other parts I’ve posted so far + my previous theories. 
/
/
/
Trigger warning for child sexual abuse.

T85S2 color coding continuation

So, the red roses Mike looks at are not necessarily about the trauma directly but about the way to the truth. Mike gives one to El right before they arrive at the cabin where they’ll perform the séance and meet the ghost. The rose is a non-murder flower maybe because that’s the truth: the flower (girlness) isn’t bad. (Although the murdering was about metaphorically killing the “man” so this is a bit contradictory still.) The first flower Mike gave El was purple. It was still an illusion/deception/not quite the truth. So the red rose could be a step in the right direction.

Roses are traditionally associated with romantic love, so naturally that would be the first assumption. But I think there has to be more since the rose on the door of the Creel house is so important. Flowers in ST mean “girl”, so a red flower could mean something like “a way to girl”, (especially being on the door). It could also be “the trauma of being a (trans) girl” which fits the S4E9 scene where El is trapped and suffering in front of it. (Kinda like the red boy scout scarf thing Holly puts on represents the trauma of being forced into that gender role, it’s “suffocating” Holly.) When El gets powers from Mike’s love profession and overpowers Vecna, the flower of the rose is out of frame (maybe to indicate we are getting away from the truth). In S5E5 we see Holly wearing a rose patterned shirt when meeting Henry for the first time. In this case roses were the “way to boy”. Similarly opening the Creel house rose door can mean either direction. The main point is that rose is between the two worlds. (And since the roses were on Holly, not Henry, they are still associated with “girl”.) 

In the same season the rose door is introduced, Robin uses the codename Rose when meeting Victor in Pennhurst. Robin represents the girl identity, so this fits very well. (Then there’s also the character Rosario, the name meaning “rose garden”. Interestingly, in Spanish-speaking cultures it’s primarily a feminine name while in Italy it’s a masculine name.) Roses could have a Sleeping Beauty connection too, since in the Grimm brothers’ (and Disney’s) version the princess is called Briar Rose and the castle is surrounded by a thorny rose hedge. (Another random point: at the very end of S5E8 Mary says girl farts smell like roses.)  

The rose on the old Creel house door seen in S4 is grey instead of red. This is another case of red vs grey color coding, grey meaning repression/lie/conformity or wrongness (remember grey merry-go-round being wrong, the Ugly Duckling tale and the grey compass direction being wrong). Steve opens the door with a brick (that Robin found). Grey, Steve and bricks all represent conformity, so it seems the old Creel house does too and the party going in there is related to conformity/repression in some way. In contrast, the rose is red from inside the house so the way out of the house is the right way (like with the compass). If we think about what actually happens inside the old Creel house in S4, the connection to forced conformity/Mike being trapped becomes clearer: Nancy, Robin and Steve are choked by the vines (= “man body”), Jason fights Lucas, and Max dies.

(Interestingly, Max gets flashbacks to Vecna asking her what she’s doing “in here” when she sees the grey rose. Maybe Max shouldn’t be in Vecna’s Mind Lair or the grey rose house because she’s the (happy girl) future. Maybe that’s what Henry really means when he says Max ruined everything. She shouldn’t have entangled herself with the trauma and conformity (= Mike shouldn’t have let her fear force her girl future to die).) 

What does the Creel house represent? It seems to be both “good” (= Alice and S5 children having fun) and associated with the abuse (= the curse, the demon, the dad represented by Victor or Henry). Something like childhood/the past probably makes the most sense. Non-conformity happiness destroyed by forced conformity and the abuse. So similar meanings to orange. A conversation in the documentary supports this view:

[Jamie] “I also had some great thoughts last night. I think what’s really interesting is that in his mind, he’s gone back home. He could go anywhere. This is a choice. You could be anywhere, right?”
[Matt] “Yeah.”
[Jamie] “He’s decided to go back home. And he’s living in the same house. It’s almost like it becomes this… perfect vision of what he wanted it to be, and what it never was…”
[Matt] “That’s good.”
[Jamie] “...which makes it so human.”
[Matt] “Yeah. And what you wanted your dad to be, and… Yeah.”

As I’ve said, houses and towns can represent a person. I think the Creel house represents Mike. The people living in that house are different aspects of her identity and how she sees herself. The house gets cursed by a demon in the attic (or in actuality by the dad). The women are killed (= Mike forced to conform) and the dad is taken away from the house (= Mike forgetting the abuse). Only the boy forced into conformity, now a literal monster, returns and starts living in the attic. 

Btw the roof in Sara’s drawing was blue = transness lives in the attic (= the brain/mind). Max, Lucas and Erica also used blue lights in S4E9, mostly being in the Creel house attic. In S4E8 Dustin explains that Vecna and El’s weakness is the “trance-like state” they go into when they remote-travel. Lucas figures that’s what Vecna has been doing in the attic and Dustin adds Vecna’s physical body will be defenseless. It all fits the attic representing the mind and Mike’s transness. When Vecna is thrown out of the attic in the final fight, he disappears (= the monster/true story was thrown out of Mike’s mind, i.e. Mike buried it deep to try to forget/not face the truth). Hopper decapitates the Demogorgon at the same time, which is a metaphorical way to show the separation of mind and body (cutting the flower head from the man body). Since the whole house basically represents the person/mind, maybe the attic is more specifically the deepest secrets and things Mike hides from others (and herself). 

The rose being red from the inside (indicating going out of the house is the right way) could mean that Mike is stuck in the past. While she has buried the traumatic memories, simultaneously she can’t let go of the past and is in a way controlled by her trauma. The Creel house becomes a prison, frozen in time, inhabited by the monster of the past (and the real story). In this sense being stuck in the past can mean the boy/man identity and Mike’s inability to change. That could explain the grey rose and Steve opening the door. Another interpretation could be that the current house is the current Mike, but I think the Creel house being the past makes more sense. It’s old, abandoned, associated with these murders that happened long ago and is the home of Vecna (remember that Henry represents the past). 

The house in Henry’s memories retains the red rose (= way to truth), but the house in current Hawkins has the grey rose (= the wrong way), maybe because Mike is repressing the true memories. There is no Alice, Virginia or Victor in the house, only this manifestation of Mike blaming herself. She can only see the monster now, not the happiness, not the girl that existed before “Henry” nor the true abuser. In S5 Henry brings the children to the imaginary house to maybe try to awaken Mike’s inner child and live this alternative reality where Mike had a happy and free childhood. 

Another point that came to mind is the MF heart in S5. While beating, it’s red, but after MF is defeated, it turns grey. (Also, when Vecna “dies” in S4, Max’s heart stops.) “Mike is the heart” so red heart would mean Mike is on the right path and grey is the conformity/repression/wrong path. This makes me wonder if the red heart on the shield was actually somehow “a way to truth”. That’s what the color coding hints at least (the red dragon definitely represents the trauma and way to truth, and MB is ofc fighting it). I’d say the heart is probably the “heart of the story”, which is the real story. Everything is built from it/around it, it’s the core. That’s why MF has the big heart and Vecna gets power from it. When that heart stops beating, the “story” breaks away from the real story and becomes this pointless facade without the meaning behind it. So Mike being the (red) heart on the shield would mean Mike is the way to truth, which does make sense.  

Before I’ve said Will calling Mike “the heart” was him forcing the “Mike” (man) identity on Mike, which contradicts with the heart meaning a way to the truth. For one, the scene happened in front of the Montague pizza oven (Montague is Romeo’s last name in Romeo and Juliet). Also if you think about the love profession scene, it’s exactly the kind of situation where MW is giving courage and being on El’s side without actually being there himself (= the role of “Mike”). This suggests Mike being “the heart” is Mike being “Mike”. Why is the heart red, then? We have to remember the duality of Mike and that she is both the real story and the most “fake” story. The red heart is surrounded by a grey shield and a yellow crown, just like the real Mike is hidden behind the “man” facade/”story”. Mike keeping the party (and “especially El”) from falling apart was the key point in Will’s heart explanation, so I think “the heart of the story” fits here. If my theory is right, before the love profession, we were about to get to the real story, thus breaking apart the party and El (= allegory) and ending the story. Mike being the heart kept us in the “story”. The red heart is the way to the truth but not the final truth itself, just like the “story”/allegory. (And when Will said “you’re the heart”, he didn’t specify the color.)

((One thing that confuses me a little is that Mike the Brave’s shield (on the physical figure) has blue and white, which should mean truth. But MB is the man lie, the paladin, the protector of the “story”. Maybe it’s similar to the red heart and a clue to who Mike really is. This might explain the blue-white MW boxes too. The communication equipment is still in the box, not in use, waiting for shipment.))

S4E6
[Max] “So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart.”
[Robin] “If he even has a heart.”
[Steve] “A stake? Is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire?”
[Max] “It was a metaphor.”
[Eddie] “A bullet should work on him, right?”
[Lucas] “I say we chop his head off.”

Vampires represent conformity in ST. I think this “stake through the heart” is the “right” method, since it’s associated with killing the vampire. Eddie’s idea literally happened in S4, Lucas’ in S5. I think they in turn represent the “wrong” ways to “kill Vecna”. Chopping the head off is the final mind-body separation, and the bullet is the halfway point, temporarily stopping Vecna. (I’m kinda realizing that both Mike and Lucas consistently represent either the most fake story or the most real story.) A pumpkin and a Demogorgon got stakes hammered into them in S5 to create an electrical current through them and for Will to contact Vecna. The “stake through the heart” was a metaphor indeed: true communication kills the vampire. The next stage is a stake through Mike (Vecna’s heart), whatever that means in practice. 

Well, I ended up in a DnD rabbit hole… It all started from this X post. So apparently there’s a Heart of Vecna and it’s either the highest priest of the cult of Vecna or it’s some sort of artifact (more sources here and here). ((I also learned the first main setting for DnD is called Greyhawk. Probably where the name Hawkins came from… I could get so much more out of this if I actually knew DnD and its lore.)) There have been theories that Henry is actually the Hand of Vecna and Will is the Eye of Vecna, and they make a lot of sense. The person with the Hand of Vecna becomes corrupted by the hand and eventually believes they are the true Vecna. This matches pretty well with Henry’s backstory. The Eye of Vecna has truesight and Vecna might start taking over their body, both of which are plot points for Will in S2. Although it was technically MF taking over Will, but they are a hive mind and represent the same things Vecna does. 

The point I’m getting at here is that we have never seen the real Vecna in ST. In DnD lore, Vecna is currently a demigod, not really a physical being (if I’ve understood correctly). I think “Vecna” is the real story in ST. We have never seen it directly, no one quite personifies it, but it is there and seen especially through Will and Henry. El is kind of the daughter of Vecna or his mortal avatar who frees him (just read this). ST seems to morph Tharizdun and Vecna lore into one, so both the real Vecna and Tharizdun are the same in ST. And I’d say the Mind Flayer is too. They all represent the real story.

So it makes sense Mike would be the Heart of Vecna and that the heart represents the heart of the story. As a side note, there’s probably a point to Kas, a paladin, killing Vecna in the lore. (Another side note, Dustin’s “Hellfire Lives!” shirt in the epilogue is suspiciously reminiscent of the adventure module “Vecna Lives!” released in 1990. Since the Hellfire Club in ST was always associated with Vecna, and this exact phrase was said by Eddie, I think it’s a reference to that adventure module.) Also, Vecna was always the plan. Even the pilot script includes a subtle reference: “A SCIENTIST staggers out into the corridor. He is gasping for breath. A Hazmat suit melts off his body. We can see some skin beneath; it is burned, shredded, bloody. His entire left arm is missing.“

Another detail related to red, grey and heart is the grey arrow Mike has on her shirt on her heart. This would make the meaning of the arrow kind of the opposite: it’s the wrong way instead of the right way. It’s “south”, not “north”. I rewatched all the scenes where Mike has the shirt and the grey triangle seems to point mostly towards Jonathan or Will and quite rarely towards other people. This fits with Jonathan and Will representing “man”. Mike first has the shirt after El is taken away (= heart turns grey, I guess). There’s also a scene where it points towards an ICE text (and Jonathan says “one” two times in quick succession). This would fit with the grey = repression and ice as the girl identity (and truth overall) being “frozen”/locked away. In Suzie’s room it points towards the Muppet poster, which has both the truth (Miss Piggy) and the lie (Kermit). (Jonathan is also in that direction.) I’d say the arrow can’t be completely reduced to “wrong way”. It represents where Mike’s “heart” is pointing at/where she thinks she is/should be heading. And since Mike’s heart is “grey” (meaning she is repressing herself), the pocket is grey, even though in certain scenes it would make more sense if it was red. In any case the heart triangle is intentional and what it points towards means something. (Kinda like the “one way” sign pointing towards Mike’s closet.) 

Two other clothes related grey-red coded details are Joyce’s beanie in S4 and the Hellfire shirt. Joyce wears a red beanie for most of the Russia trip, but at the beginning of S4E9 she changes it to a grey one. I previously mistook it for white but it’s actually grey and the colors make sense. S4E8 is the turning point where things started to go wrong, culminating in the helicopter crashing and Brenner’s death. For the Hellfire shirt, it has a red demon in the middle, but the S5 epilogue version Dustin wears is completely grey and has a shield behind the demon. Hmm… Interesting. It’s like the demon is the red heart on Mike’s shield, only it’s now grey. Obviously the shirt symbolizes non-conformity and the epilogue was so conforming that even Hellfire went grey. ((I’m kinda thinking some of the color coding is flipped in the graduation scene. Dustin associates orange with conformity and then under that orange a grey shirt is revealed as the non-conformity. In the rest of the show, orange is the clearest color to represent non-conformity and grey is the most associated with conformity. It kinda fits the whole idea of the epilogue being a big lie. They are pretending to be against conformity when they actually are super conforming. The colors tell the truth.))

A couple more details about the painting. When El narrates “he won’t show me what he’s working on”, Will paints something green (that doesn’t end up showing in the final painting). Green can mean growth, future or conformity and in Will’s drawing scenes it has thus far been conformity/Will hiding the truth. El’s narration fits perfectly here: the painting is the “story” hiding/”not showing” the real story. 

The cloud Will paints when El narrates “Maybe it is for a girl” is light blue (almost white). This cloud isn’t in the finished painting either. The sky in the painting is grey or white, like it’s full of clouds. Blue being associated with “girl” and especially Mike being a girl makes sense. The full sky being clouds and Will painting green also make sense since the painting represents the “story” (as I’ve explained previously). Maybe what Will is drawing isn’t a cloud at all, but a gap between clouds, showing some clear sky. It looks like a cloud because the sky is full of clouds. This fits with El’s line, too: what she says is wrong on the surface (because Will’s painting is not for a girl, as in Will is gay), but it’s true on a deeper level (the painting is for Mike and Mike is a girl). You can also see more blue in the unfinished painting, it’s like Will painted progressively more clouds as time went on, until no blue sky was left.

Will paints the dragon with black when El narrates “I think there’s someone he likes”, kinda suggesting the dragon is that “someone”. And it is, only the “real” Mike aka the girl the painting is for. ((Btw, Dustin has an axe in the painting, and in T85S2 he said he would play Bloodaxe Bill in the school project. Dustin is storytelling so this makes a lot of sense.)) 

T85S2 light and dark

The meaning of light and dark is another point I have never quite been able to pin down. Both T85 seasons make a point about too little and too much light being bad, so there’s gotta be some deeper meaning to it. Normally you would think light = good and darkness = bad, but it’s not that simple in ST. After gathering examples and thinking about this a bit, I have arrived at the following conclusion: light is the “story” and darkness is the real story. This way light can be both “good” and not necessarily the right answer, and fit the overall framework.

In the yellow daytime light, the flowers are innocent and purple. Both Will and El are associated with light, as has been explained before. In the darkness of night, the flowers reveal their true nature and glow blue. The party encounters the ghost always in the dark, and e.g. at the start of E4 the lights turn back on after the ghost disappears. In E2 Will tries to point his flashlight (again, yellow light) towards the ghost but Dustin prevents him. This is a small detail but it doesn’t have a clear explanation in the surface level story. On the metaphorical layer it’s ofc about Will being the light and the “story” who protects Mike from the truth (ghost in this case). Dustin can prevent this because he is the key to figuring out the real meaning behind the story. He can both hide and reveal the truth.

The silver mine was described as dark: E7 [Lucas] “See, um, we tried shooting in the real mine. But it was too… Too dark. It was too dark in there.” I think the idea is that the real story is too dark, so we need some light, some “story” to “water it down” (like Murray said in S2E5). You can’t see anything in the dark because the memories are simply blocked/you dissociate (Mike with DID). (Also, in S4E8 Brenner says Henry was “hiding in the darkness”.) With too much light you can’t see anything either because it’s just lies at that point. You have to find a balance to slowly start getting towards the truth. 

In E3 Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will look at three photos from the mine. The first one is too dark to see anything, the second is the skeleton and the third is an overexposed image of the ghost. I think this is the perfect example of this light-dark coding. The clearest photo is of Bill and the pickaxe. It’s of a dead guy and the original reason the characters start calling the ghost “he”. This middle photo is the middle layer and the “story” (Will, silver screen, half-truth, etc.). In a metaphorical way it shows the truth, too: ST is about a “dead guy” as in Mike’s “man” dying. In the show Mike specifies the dead guy was murdered, which could connect to the Murder Flowers. Anyway, the photos are also literally the more real the darker they get: the darkest one is just the mine (nothing supernatural), the lightest is of the ghost (supernatural), and the skeleton is otherwise pretty realistic but the silver pickaxe is not. No one would actually have a silver pickaxe since it’s not functional (so maybe for aesthetics only?). 

The other two instances of overexposed photos come from E2 where Mike was trying to film Lucas and E6 where Dustin was trying to see where the pollen would lead (to find the Lich). Turning down the gain was the solution both times. In the E2 scene Lucas was talking about Charlie being spooked (while in front of a blue background). Mike says it’s all wrong, which has two meanings (literally pointed out to us): Lucas thinks Mike means the factuality of what he just claimed, but Mike actually meant the camera. I think the subtext could be a combination of both: the light being too bright and what Lucas said are both “wrong”, “a lie”. Lucas corrects himself and mentions the Demogorgon (= ghost-Demogorgon parallel), and at that exact moment Mike moves to the side, revealing the rainbow Apple logo (Demogorgon = queerness). Will is visually paired with the light/overexposed image, but he is also the one who helps Mike lower the gain. Will can both tell a lie or the truth. He has that power. (Lucas’ Citizen Kane reference actually fits ST super well. I have never seen it but by reading the Wikipedia, I noticed many connections and another possible (complimentary) explanation for the roses.)

In the E6 scene Dustin, Mike and Lucas find out Hawkins is covered in pollen and thus they can’t pinpoint where it leads. Pollen shows as light on Dustin’s camera. Based on my theory pollen would be something like “story”. Let’s see if it makes sense. The flowers produce pollen from the fear they collect, the Hate Sprites harvest it and the ghost is made of it. Well, the “story” exists in the first place because of Mike’s fear. This interpretation explains why the flowers glow in response to fear and the whole lightbulb thing. That one puzzled me for so long: why would the light (= something good) be associated with the trauma so clearly? The answer (or part of the answer) could be that the trauma is first, then comes the light as a coping mechanism. The light is the protection. First is “sexual” electricity (= the real story aka the abuse and the queerness etc.), and that electricity turns the lamps on (= the “story” to hide and soften the real story). In S5E6 Holly mentions how she needs a stupid night-light, and in S5E1 she sees it glow as a warning of the Demogorgon. Fear makes the lamps glow, just like the flowers.

This doesn’t answer everything with the pollen, though, e.g. why the ghost is made of it, why the Hate Sprites collect it or why we can only see it through Dustin’s camera. The whole point of the flowers and pollen collection was for Daniel to be freed. The ghost is an indirect way for Daniel to interact with the Hawkins side. It makes sense this would be the “story”. Similar to the silver mine, the flowers connect the two worlds. Hawkins is covered in pollen because it’s full of “story”. Turning down the gain reveals areas where the pollen is more concentrated, which I take to mean “what the story is about at its core” and/or motifs and other patterns. All these will lead you to the Lich’s lair aka the real story. ((At least that’s how it worked for me. One of the keys to figuring all this out was to think about the story: what are they trying to tell with the story, what are the patterns, what is the big picture, does X detail/theory make sense in the larger framework, etc.)) I’ll probably get back to Dustin’s camera at some point, but I’ll say it’s pretty clearly meta about storytelling and -reading as per usual. 

In T85S1 the solution was to make the light as bright as possible to kill the plants (also, the laser specifically cut off the left arm of the monster). This is in contrast with the message of T85S2 and I think my earlier theory on the seasons representing the past and the future explains this nicely. In Mike’s childhood, she needed the “story” to survive (= bright light to kill the monsters), but now that she’s older, she has to start accepting the truth and processing the trauma (= turning down the gain) to live her best life. Plants need light to live (remember the photosynthesis poster from S1?) but too much light will kill them. In T85S1 the plants were dangerous monsters but in T85S2 they were beautiful flowers (and the golems I guess).

I want to go back to the S1E1 lightbulb. It is shown instead of what really happens to Will. We know there’s a monster but we don’t see it. The lightbulb has been a stand-in for something more serious since the beginning, it’s the “story” that hides the real story. The light turns on = “story” begins. This fits super well with my earlier interpretation of “let there be light” meaning the beginning of the story/creation of the inner world. The S1E1 scene makes it look like the lightbulb getting brighter and brighter (due to supernatural reasons ofc) and then returning to normal causes Will’s disappearance, and that’s kind of true. Too much lie and even the half-truth is gone. 

If you think about it, the S1E1 shed scene is ST/Mike’s history in a nutshell: first is something scary, then comes the “story” and finally Will disappears. Will represents ST itself: the whole plot of S1 basically foreshadows the situation we are in now (with conformitygate or lovewinsgate or whatever people call it now), as I’ve pointed out before. Some people think Will is gone for good, others are Joyce with the lights seeing signs he’s still alive. An alternative reading for what Will’s vanishing represents is the real ending, where “Will” will also disappear: the “story”/“boy” is gone, since we have reached the truth (= lightbulb stops being unnaturally bright). I have explained this idea before, just not in connection to the lightbulb. The wormhole collapsing can either separate the worlds for good or merge them.  

To reiterate: the lightbulb part of the scene is the “story” aka what we have been shown in the show thus far. What comes before and after it are the past and the future which we haven’t seen (yet). They happen in reality whereas zooming on the lightbulb only shows the lightbulb: we can’t see Will or what really happens to him. The lightbulb doesn’t only represent the “bad thing” that happened, in a meta way it represents the allegory itself. The lightbulb is the censored/metaphorical way to show something you can’t show directly.

I have now re-evaluated my interpretations on light-related things. One big one is the sun. Sara’s drawing had a big sun, Brenner drew a sun in the S4E1 flashback, the mage cast Sunbeam and the sun was also mentioned in the Netflix What Next? video in connection to waking your inner child with Sesame Street. With my new framework, “sun” would mean something like “story”. Sara’s drawing depicts a happy family, which isn’t the reality. The mage vanishes after casting the spell, and the flashlight Mike points at the players literally blinds them. The sun is the first drawing, it’s the beginning of the story and closely relates to childhood since that’s when this “story” was created. That’s when Mike needed it most. The sunflower in Terry’s word list has the same meaning. She sees them after birthing Jane and Becky tries to tell her the baby was stillborn (= the real story “didn’t happen”, it’s covered in lies). (The sunflower probably has other meanings too, e.g. the flower = girl connection.) The fact that Japan is the land of the rising sun makes a lot of sense. Also, in T85S2E1 the sun rises right after the party finds out the goblin was actually a raccoon, connecting south, the “story”/lie and sunrise.

What about Lucas being the bringer of light and the audience being “the light” according to Jamie? And Henry’s plan of merging the worlds of darkness and light so that light would expel the darkness? And Hopper’s “deep dark cave”? And Sunbeam destroying Strahd? These would suggest conformity is the darkness and the light would be the truth, which is basically the opposite of what I just said. (Although Henry’s plan probably represents the “story” too since he is Mr. Whatsit and says the good world doesn’t have monsters. But it’s simultaneously about the real story, and Henry views conformity as the “monsters”.) I will expand my view of “light” from “story”/lie to positivity/happiness. Too much of it creates false happiness and a naive positivity. Too little leads to depression and a cynical view of the world. Mike still has hope, she doesn’t have to be stuck in the cave forever. Lucas brings Mike this happiness, hope and love. In a sense, the light is always about love. Will and El love Mike and want to protect her (= Mike’s brain wants to protect itself). The lie isn’t evil, it has good intentions and it was even necessary to keep Mike alive/functional.

The point about decreasing the amount of light to help see is not a new one in ST. In S1 Joyce turns off all the lights to communicate with Will using the Christmas lights. In S4E5 the party investigates the Creel house and Nancy realizes they should turn off their flashlights to see where Vecna is. The light should come from him and not be overpowered by the artificial lights the characters use (to protect themselves from the darkness). In S4E9 Mike crafts El glasses to block peripheral light so she can find and contact Max. And when she does, she sees the blue light first (and btw uses “they” (“I found them” and “They’re carrying a light”), which on the surface seems like she’s talking about Max and Lucas, but the Cali gang doesn’t know Lucas is there + the assumption was that El was looking for Max + Max is the only one carrying the light). The lights are communication and this communication also requires turning off your own lights (= the lie and fake facade). To see the truth you have to be ready to listen. And all this fits super well with the lights representing the “story” (remember that it is what connects the two worlds, the storyteller and the audience). So, was I wrong when I said the lights evoked by the monsters are a coping mechanism and the opposite of truth? I think they could represent both the truth and the coping mechanism of “story” that Mike’s brain paints over the truth. Like a half-truth. Like the wormhole, bridge, between-worlds-dimension the “story” is.

If we go back to lightbulb stuff, the other major one was in S4E5 in the Creel house attic. The party finds their way to Vecna (= the connection to the real story) by following the lights. In Hawkins, we only see a lightbulb (= the “censored” allegorical version of the story, forced to be that way due to conformity), but in the UD we see Vecna (= the reality, the monster). When Vecna remotely kills Patrick at Lover’s Lake, the lightbulb breaks and El is resuscitated. I think the lightbulb breaking represents the story getting too real and hurting the audience/Lucas (= Patrick in this case) in Mike’s mind. The connection is lost. It’s also a boy (abused by his father mind you) dying at the place the compass ended up pointing to (= represents Mike’s fear of her transness/the real story). In S1E1 the lightbulb seemed like it would shatter due to getting so bright (this point is written in the pilot script, btw), but it didn’t. The story didn’t yet get too close to truth and could continue. But in S4E5 it did get too close. And then later got bended because Mike couldn’t face the truth or tell the real story (yet).

This light-darkness thing is reflected in some of the color coding, especially with yellow, black and white. As I have already explained, yellow/yellow light is closely associated with Will and the “story”. Mike said the flower bouquet had “too much yellow”, just like the T85S2 photos had too much light. There are these yellow smiley faces in S4 (and possibly other seasons too?), which I have noticed but didn’t really have an explanation for. Now I do. They are the fake positivity/happiness/”story”, they represent Mike’s facade. ((Interestingly, Jonathan has a red smiley face in his room. During El’s introduction letter, we see him trying to wave the weed smoke out of the window, but you can also see it as him trying to wave the smiley face away/down. The red represents the (way to the) truth that Jonathan is desperately trying to avoid the whole season, using weed. Why it’s a smiley face, I’m not sure. Maybe to link it with the other smiley faces, or maybe it is also a “fake smile” but more ominous since it’s red. The truth that the smile is fake? Or maybe the smiley face is a reference to something that I’m not getting.))

The MF drawings are black, which fits with MF representing the dark real story. The dark cloud MF in the middle of a yellow Abyss in Henry’s flashback could be about the real story hiding inside the “story”. This fits with Billy being trapped in the yellow-lit sauna room, demanding to be let out. The real story is trapped inside a yellow facade. In T85S2E2 Dustin reminds Mike of the rhyme “Red and black, friend of Jack. Red and yellow, deadly fellow.” which is used to help identify dangerous snakes. Here black is friend and yellow is deadly. “Fellow” is a synonym for “man”, and that meaning fits here perfectly. Yellow is the man lie, black is the dark truth. This also explains why Will was painting the dragon with black when El narrated “I think there’s someone he likes”. Eden is introduced in the same season. And she isn’t the only girl dressing in black in ST, there are these goth girl extras in various seasons and I think they represent the truth. In S2E2 Jonathan meets Samatha in the party. The name Samantha is a feminine version of Samuel (= “name of God” + in this context connection to Samuel Hawkins, Sam Owens and Max’s dad) with the Greek suffix anthos (= “flower”). Also, if you look carefully you’ll notice the Creel house door rose is black during the memories from the Creel family massacre. 

I would have had more to say about white but annoyingly I put too many images and have to cut this here.

Continues in PART 34.

Documentary based off the TV show. Or the TV show is based off the supposed events that took place at Camp Hero Montauk New York.

All the villains in season 5 were disappointing in season 5, from Vecna and the Mind Flayer having such a short final battle to the horrendous military plotline. The villains either went down too easily or got off totally scot-free (not just Kay but even Andy faces 0 karma).

Jason was an actually nice antagonist tbh. I like how he wasn't just a straightforward racist bully like Troy and Billy. He always disliked Eddie sure but we see he did love Chrissy and care about his friends too. His actions are inexcusable but his reasons for crashing-out make total sense.

Personally, I would've preferred if Kay, Sullivan or even Andy got killed instead of him but nevertheless, its funny he was the last villain I'd consider well-written

Who else thinks that Nancy Thompson and Nancy Wheeler would be a very great duo if they ever met each other.

The Stranger Things finale left so many of us wanting more. There are plot threads still hanging, questions about the Upside Down that deserve answers, and characters whose stories feel incomplete. The community that's grown around this show is real and passionate—and I think that deserves to be heard.

I started a petition asking Ross Duffer to actually sit down with fans and explore what spin-offs or additional content could look like. Not to demand anything, but to show there's genuine interest in continuing this universe in a way that feels right. The Duffer Brothers created something special, and with so much potential still on the table, it feels worth asking.

Honestly, I'm curious what everyone else is thinking—what loose ends are *you* still thinking about? What character or storyline would you want to see explored? If this resonates with you, I'd really appreciate it if you'd consider signing and sharing. Thanks.

We all know that vecna can get into people’s heads, using their trauma against them, make them see, hear, and think things that aren’t there, true, or they are hurt and afraid of. Even bring their deepest and darkest thoughts and feelings out in the open. He can make them feel hopeless, hide their pain, and give up. So what if throughout season 5, (if that idea was used in it in the actual show) he uses his powers to cause pain, discord, fights, and feelings of hopelessness and defeat to make the gang be against each other rather than focus on finding him? Everyone is vulnerable to him, and with their own trauma, insecurities, and after a year and a half of trying to find him, they’re tired, in quarantine, and struggling with their own issues, which he uses against. Once they finally open up, heal, find hope, and be together as one again for themselves, hawkins and the world, they will use their lessons against him. Maybe even finding out somehow what Vecna was doing to them before the final battle/episode. Although you got to admit, with the way they all were, acted, and learned throughout season 5 as it was, looks like they didn’t need Vecna to mess with them even more and bring discord between them. (even Mike admitted that in the first episode of season 5) They did that, yet learned their lessons all on their own.

This is part of a series where I uncover what Stranger Things is really about. It started from trying to find out what happened in 1979 aka what all the depictions of traumatic past memories (El, Henry, Billy, Max, Holly, etc.) are truly about, but expanded to this all-encompassing theory of the whole series with crazy levels of complexity, metaphors and layers. Reading it will require commitment and patience but I promise it will be worth your time if you want to look behind the curtain (and the curtain behind that curtain) and fully understand the show. You have to read all parts in order: here is PART 1 and here all other parts I’ve posted so far + my previous theories. 
/
/
/
Trigger warning for child sexual abuse.

Before continuing with my T85S2 analysis, I highly recommend you go read the comments of the previous part. I had a very fruitful discussion about the possibility that Mike’s real given name is Peter Hawkins. I got some new perspective and explanations for things that have been confusing to me (and kinda still are tbh). What I wrote in the comments can be regarded as part of this theory and an analysis on the same level as anything else I’ve been writing here. From now on I will assume you have read it. 

I will refer to the facade of Mike as “Mike” (and use he/him pronouns) and to the character underneath it all, the real Mike (aka Sara) as Mike without quotation marks (and use she/her pronouns). So basically the same meaning as before. I technically could use Sara for this but it gets confusing and I still cannot be certain that will be Mike’s future name.

To add to that analysis, I have a few points and pondering (read: a very long side tangent). The whole El-Mike-Will situation and Will being the “story” doesn’t have a super clean solution in my theory. Will seems to both be the lie and the half-truth, depending on context. Either there won’t be a clean solution or I’m still not at the “correct” conclusion. With the Peter stuff I got some more clarity to this. “Mike” is the full lie, the straight man, the rich boy whose dad isn’t abusive and who is brave, goes against bullies to protect his friends, etc. Will is the half-truth, the gay boy who is seemingly weak and doesn’t go against bullies, whose family is poor and dad abusive (and he has a bowl cut). Will’s love for Mike and this fantasy of a relationship is basically Peter/Sara/Mike’s fantasy of “Mike”, of being this normal straight boy. Will loving Mike is basically Mike choosing “Mike” (kinda like Tammy or Nancy choosing Steve). Will loving “Mike” is metaphorically speaking the full lie (kinda paradoxically).

There is a meta aspect to this, one that I have discussed before. Mike being the archetypal “safe” protagonist (straight, white, rich, not too weird, fits into society’s standards of a normal man pretty well, etc.) but then actually being the opposite is a major part of the meta commentary in ST. The biggest lie in ST is “Mike” and simultaneously the full lie/”story” is personified in “Mike” (it’s kinda hard to wrap your head around it but I’ll try my best to explain). This imaginary friend who brings the kid (Peter/Sara represented by Will/El) strength and safety is simultaneously the facade the same kid puts on. “Mike” is doing double-duty as the outside friend and the person themselves, and in both situations being the full lie. Like I’ve previously said, the “man” facade is also the protector and a separate person.

The main confusion I have now is the role of Will vs “Mike”. Is Will the “story” and lie or not? He’s for sure not the full truth but is he ever the full lie (= straight man etc.)? Will’s love for Mike and view of Mike as a (straight) man, as “Mike”, is the lie but Will himself may be the half-truth? (Mike and Will together form the acronym MW, afterall…) This brings more weight to Will’s S5 arc too: he let go of the fantasy of “Mike” and learned to accept himself without “Mike”. “I was looking for answers in somebody else, but… I had all the answers” and “he’s just my Tammy”. Will (or Peter) doesn’t need “Mike”, he is strong as himself. He is a protector in the same way I have interpreted before: the one who takes the trauma in other people’s place and who doesn’t fight back to keep the system safe. It’s a role that doesn’t fit the standard masculine hero, but actually is very heroic and brave. 

There are some clear associations with “Peter” and “Sara”, that I want to expand on a bit. Peter is scared, not brave, obviously a boy and has low self-esteem. This is how Mike views herself and not necessarily the objective truth. Sara is a brave strong girl. Hopper always talks about how brave she was, El is constantly shown and said to be brave and strong, Nancy and Holly find their inner strength instead of relying on a man, etc. The associations make sense when you remember Robin’s talk with Will. She talked about a “little me” who wasn’t afraid of being herself. “Peter” represents Mike not being brave enough to be herself (+ needing DID/”story” to survive), whereas “Sara” is the “little me” and the older Mike who will be brave enough (+ be “one”, not needing the alters or “story” anymore). Clearly Mike has this deep appreciation for her girl identity and wants to forget “Peter”. At the same time Mike sees the girl identity (or the transness of it) as a monster. 

Both Will and El loving Mike is about Peter/Sara needing “Mike” and loving this idealized version of themselves. From the “Mike” pov, he is preoccupied with Will especially in S1-2, where “Mike” is the savior looking for Will and then taking care of him during hard times. With El “Mike” wants to be needed and is scared of losing her. I think this is more about Mike being scared of losing the facade of “Mike” (so El losing “Mike”), but it could be about losing “El” as the safe fantasy option and having to deal with the reality of being trans (= Sara). Or losing El as in the girl identity and Mike essentially losing herself. Or maybe I’m missing something. From the core Mike (so not “Mike” but Peter/Sara) point of view, Mike can’t bring herself to tell El she loves her because Mike can’t accept the girl part of herself yet. But at least Mike sees her as a superhero (so maybe somehow unrealistic, mythical, not a possible reality?). 

Mike clearly loves Will but their relationship has a sort of friction too (like mileven), especially in S3-4. Mike of course has difficulty accepting the “Peter” part of herself, for slightly different reasons to not accepting “Sara”. “Peter” is kinda between two forces: Mike wanting to be an ideal version of who society expects her to be (not the poor wimp gay Peter) and Mike wanting to live as a woman (not the boy Peter). It’s no wonder Will suffers so much in ST… And gets subtly erased and less subtly ignored in S3. This could be the somewhat meta reason we get so few clues to this Peter thing in the show (I would like to get more from S1) compared to Sara, for example. The storyteller wants to escape using this “story”, so the worst parts of her real life are purposefully removed. (S4 had by far the most Peter clues: Henry’s character’s code name is Peter Ballard, Owens’ son is Peter, Suzie’s little brother is Peter and Robin mentions “little Petey”. This fits nicely with S4 getting closest to the truth, e.g. with the trailer park and Vecna.) 

Will looming in mileven scenes in S4 is “Peter” being omnipresent in Mike’s life, “ruining” the fantasy of both the straight man Mike and the girl Sara. (I guess I had explained this point already, as in Will is the “man” preventing Mike from being a woman, and also the queerness preventing Mike from being straight. Keeping Mike in the middle, in the Upside Down. The only new thing is seeing the name and identity of “Mike” as the straight man/Steve-equivalent.) 

Okay, “Peter” seems super negative here, so how does this fit in my theory that Will represents “the story too good to be true”? He is associated with light and yellow (which I will discuss more later). A core part of Will being “story” is the “story” being a happy or at least a happier and more fantastical version of the real story. One possible explanation is that Will is not the same as Peter. Will is the fantastical and somewhat unrealistic “story of Peter”. He has many friends, a loving mom, an older brother and while he does suffer a lot, it’s a supernatural kind of suffering, not “real” (except for the bullying and doomed gay love part). The real Peter/Mike only has one friend, their mom relationship is complicated, no siblings (probably), and nothing supernatural, just the gritty reality of being a victim of CSA and being a closeted trans person.

Another complimentary explanation is that Peter represents the Mike who has all these fantasies and who escapes to this fictional world (= the story too good to be true). So while Peter himself isn’t the “story”, he imagines it and finds safety in it. Peter/Will needs the “story”. This basically makes Peter the storyteller and kinda complicates my theory that Will = “story” and Mike = storyteller. In a sense Will is the story of the storyteller (as is everyone/everything in ST), so I guess it still fits. (Also Will is the DM in S3 + in T85S1 and explains the MF drawing as a sketch for a story he’s writing.) And since Mike can be both “Mike” and the real Mike, it makes sense Will would be the primary personification of “story” and the lie. Basically, Will is the Mike who loves/needs the “story”.

All this got me thinking about the DnD characters and their meaning. Mike is always the paladin (or DM) and Hopper was the paladin in Mike’s story of the mage. As I’ve said before, I think the paladin represents the “man” lie. Now I also see it as the idealized version Mike builds of herself. “Mike the Brave” represents the facade and identity of “Mike Wheeler”. Since DnD is all about roleplaying and being able to be someone you aren’t in real life, it actually makes a lot of sense “Mike” isn’t Mike’s real name. ST is about identity and the false facades we build of ourselves. The Thing poster is in the basement for a reason. 

People don’t usually name their DnD characters based on their own name like Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin and Holly do. This is done in ST partially to keep things easier for the audience but also because the DnD characters and what happens in DnD is tied to the “story”. WW is beaten by a Demogorgon and soon a monster attacks Will. The third layer to this is that the characters we see are already “DnD characters” as in characters in a story. The DnD game is a story inside the larger “story” (which in turn is based on the “real story” which again is a story).   

Another character whose DnD character never changes is El aka the mage. Although apparently “mage” isn’t a class so she could be a wizard, sorcerer, etc. Fits with El never playing and the mage being an NPC in the final game. So if the paladin represents “straight man”, then the mage would represent something like “woman” or the allegory, like El. Not the truth yet, but closer to it. 

Dustin is always the bard and I don’t really have much to add to my previous analysis, as of now. This short description should suffice: “Whether scholar, skald, or scoundrel, a bard weaves magic through words and music to inspire allies, demoralize foes, manipulate minds, create illusions, and even heal wounds.“

Things get complicated with the characters whose class changes. Will is the clearest example. At first he plays as a wizard (although it’s not explicitly said in S1 (I think?), so we can’t be sure, but at least in the pilot script he’s a wizard). Then in S2 Mike says Will is a cleric and in S5 it’s confirmed WW is a wizard but in the final game his class changes to sorcerer. Mike makes it super clear the important point is that in real life Will is more like a sorcerer, because his powers don’t come from a book of spells: they are innate. The mention of the book is important. Remember that Mr. Whatsit originally came from a book (this is even mentioned by Nancy). Will/Peter’s power used to come from fiction. He created this world and these characters to survive. He created MW. After Mike tells this, she leaves Will, visually walking out of the screen formed by the trees. I previously thought this was foreshadowing for the end where Mike leaves Will and this story (and it still could be that), but now I also think it’s about “Mike” leaving Will. Will realizes he has the power in himself and he doesn’t need the “story”, so MW leaves. 

Although kinda contradictorily Will’s powers are “story” powers. Actually, I have another possible interpretation for this book thing. In the actual A Wrinkle in Time book there is a Mrs. Whatsit and the male version is Holly’s own idea. In the final DnD game, Mike as the DM holds all the secrets (like the mage character) behind her book. The book with the M-cave symbol (reversed, so the view is the same from inside the cave, and the outside of the cave is the inside of the book). Kinda makes me think the Mike book holds the “girl” inside it, like A Wrinkle in Time (which has a female protagonist (Meg), too). Mike talks about the innate sorcerer powers with the conformity hair, which I have pointed out before. Maybe “innate” here refers to the idea that your biological sex defines your gender. This disregards gender identity and the role aspect of it (which is very much real), as if gender wasn’t tied to culture and norms and all this “abstract” stuff. 

MW is “from a book of spells”, he is a character Mike builds of herself, an identity not based on objective facts or reality. Kind of similarly, Sara is an identity and not based on e.g. biology or something concrete outside of Mike’s mind. In this view “Peter” is the objective truth and the “innate power”. But in actuality, that is also a lie. “Peter” is a built identity like any other, no matter what society tries to make Mike believe. In summary, Will starting to trust his innate power is a step in the right direction as Mike lets go of this fictional fantasy, but it’s simultaneously Mike rejecting her woman identity on the basis of it “not being real”. This is what happens at the end of S5, both Mike and “Mike” leave (close the door), only “Peter” is left.

Vecna is described as a wizard (but also as a sorcerer by Robin in S5E5). In the show’s logic, this would mean he gets his power from a book (of spells) and it isn’t innate. This can be read two ways and both make sense. Vecna as this monster Mike is afraid of becoming only exists in Mike’s imagination just like “Mike” does, but the brave boy (Will/Peter) exists in real life (well, not “boy” but otherwise yes). Mike’s view of reality has changed and she starts to see things more objectively in S5. Transness isn’t a monster, the paladin “Mike” doesn’t really exist, and Will/Peter is brave. The other side is ofc Vecna being the ambassador of the real story and representing Mike’s transness, the identity that “comes from a book”. This fits with WW being a wizard, since he is often depicted with the blue ball thing and in my interpretation represents Mike’s future. WW is obviously fictional (= MW equivalent) but metaphorically the girl identity (= real story) and gets power from a book (as a wizard). All three, Mike, Henry/Vecna and WW/MF are both the full lie and the full truth. No wonder all have multiple names. Robin calling Vecna a sorcerer could be explained by Henry/Vecna also representing the male body and the “Peter” identity. The Mike forced to conform.

Then the cleric. Holly the Heroic is a cleric but so was Will in S2 (according to Mike). A cleric is often a healer, and this could connect with my nurse theory (Vickie and Nancy dress as nurses in S5, “girl” is healing). Holly represents Mike’s inner child and Holly becoming HH by believing in herself foreshadows Mike’s self-acceptance. In this view the cleric would represent “girl” in some way. 

This doesn’t fit with Will being a cleric, though. Why is Will a cleric in S2 specifically (or maybe it was more about Mike talking to Max than S2, since we didn’t have any DnD game in S2)? We have never seen Will play a cleric and the S2 mention was the only mention of Will being a cleric. Let’s go with the interpretation that the cleric represents the real story. Will was infected and controlled by MF (= real story) in S2. Mike was talking to Max (= the finished story, also strongly related to MF) about Will’s DnD character (= WW, who represents Mike’s future and the finished story, like Max). Considering these points, it makes sense.

There’s “the paladin and the cleric” thing too. I’m pretty sure that was a leaked title for S5E7 and bylers use it a lot. Paladins and clerics both get power from a divine source so there’s a clear connection there. In S5 Will isn’t a cleric though, Holly is, so the title would refer to “Mike” and Holly, the lie and the truth, the present and the past, the boy and the girl. This fits the story much better than if it was about byler. 

What is the divine power connecting paladins and clerics, then? I think it could be the “story”. The god of this world is the story, it gives everyone and everything their power. Remember also that Michael means “who is like God?”. I have just now while checking this found something even more interesting. The name comes from Hebrew (Mikha’el) and the last part El = God. How have I never realized El’s name is embedded in Michael and the whole name basically hints that Mike is like El and that El is God?? Out of every possible reason for the names Michael and El, this is clearly the strongest. The actual meaning of “who is like God?” is that no one is like God (El). Well, no real person has superpowers like El does and El is supposed to be a metaphor. (The name Daniel could have this kind of origin too, it means “God is my judge”.)

The name Michael has a strong religious background and is most known for archangel Michael. (My knowledge of religion (like Christianity etc.) is not very extensive and I don’t wanna get too deep in this rabbit hole but here are some ideas I got while researching.) His role is very similar to “Mike” in ST. He fights Satan and leads heavenly armies. I think Henry could be Lucifer and Will would probably be Jesus (not a new idea). The name Peter might be a reference to Saint Peter. 

Anyway, ST obviously has the Satanic panic plot and as I’ve explained before, the real story is associated with these traditionally evil figures/ideas. “Mike” is fighting against these monsters, trying to maintain the “story” and conformity. Meanwhile the non-conforming Mike with long hair wears a Hellfire shirt with a demon illustration. Ghost (the band) has overt Satanic themes and they often flip the script of what is good/bad in their songs. One good example is He is (go read the lyrics), which I have long suspected to be part of the song ARG. An interesting detail about the song is that it was originally supposed to be “She is”...

The main point of this side tangent was that the divine power used by both the paladin and the cleric comes from the story. El = God, and El represents the allegory or story including both “story” and the “real story”. For the paladin this divine power is the “story” or the lie aspect of story, and for the cleric it’s the allegory/truth side of story. (God being story makes so much sense tbh.)

Mike’s pep-talks to Will and Holly are about her “fixing” her past mistakes. She’s giving the kind of advice she would have needed younger and can kinda live another version of events through Will and Holly. Holly doesn’t need Mr. Whatsit, and Will doesn’t need MW because he has innate power. HH casting a dimension door that lets her teleport anywhere she visualizes is about Mike being able to go from one “dimension” to the other. There’s also the blue color coding, the meaning of which I have finally figured out and will explain soon. 

What about Lucas, then? In S2 Mike says he is a ranger but in S3, the painting and S5 (and the pilot script) he is a knight. Ranger could be about Lucas/the audience tracking/looking for the true ending. This would fit with lumax happening in S2 and overall it being the early seasons, when there’s still a lot of mystery. As it turns out, knight isn’t a character class in DnD, but characters can be knights. Paladin is a character class well suited to be a knight and as was discussed in the comments, Lucas is to Mike what “Mike” is to Will. While “Mike” is the invented protector man, Lucas is real. Lucas is the real Venkman and a real friend supporting Mike, not a mere story.

So Lucas, El and Max have DnD characters with no specified (or an invented) character class and if you pay attention, you notice none of them are actually shown playing DnD. Lucas and Max seemingly play but their characters are never shown doing anything, and El’s mage character is in the game but El herself isn’t. I think this might be because all of these characters represent the real story in some way. They are not just part of the “story” aka the DnD game, but exist outside of it too. Based on this the cleric isn’t the real Mike exactly, since it’s a character class. You could say it’s the real story or the part of the “story” that represents the real story. That’s what Holly and the infected/possessed Will are, similar to the nurses Vickie and Nancy. None of them are the literal real story, but rather the subtextual representation of it. 

Mike’s real character has been mentioned in the show: the proud princess. Similar to Lucas’ lost knight, a princess could belong to many character classes. (The knight is lost because the audience is “lost” atp, not seeing the truth.) Both of them were NPCs in the game, too, like the mage and the vampire in the S5 game. The DM, the storyteller, always plays the NPCs and in ST they represent the storyteller in some way (Mike being the Demogorgon, (Thessalhydra?), Strahd and mage, Will being the Juju zombies and Eddie being Vecna). We are yet to see the full story of the proud princess and the lost knight. That story has two storytellers, not just one. 

For the Hawkins stuff I just want to add that in S1E6 Steve bullies Jonathan and specifically uses his last name Byers to draw a connection to Lonnie. Tommy has sprayed “Byers is a perv” on the wall and Steve says this to Jonathan:
[Steve] “You know what, Byers? I’m actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer but I guess you’re just a little screw-up like your father. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that house is full of screw-ups. You know, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. A bunch of screw-ups in your family.”
[Nancy] “Jonathan, leave it.”
[Steve] “I mean, your mom… I’m not even surprised what happened to your brother.”
[Nancy] “Steve, shut up!”
[Steve] “I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but the Byers, their family, it’s a disgrace to the entire--" -> Jonathan attacks Steve

The last name = father connection is super clear here. In S5E6 Hopper reminds Kali that El isn’t just Jane, she’s Jane Hopper. Jim Hopper is almost always referred to by his surname and what he represents fits in the same category with Hawkins. Both Hopper and Hawkins are cursed, but actually they are the curse (as Hopper realizes), the curse of the abusive father and forced conformity of society.

Another point I have kind of mentioned already comes from the S3 epilogue TV program where Hawkins is called “Heartland”. In S4 Will tells Mike “you’re the heart” and this is specifically the “Mike” who has the heart shield, the protector, the paladin, the heart of this “story”. ((If you remember from my original Finland theory, I mentioned how the coat of arms is reminiscent of the Finnish coat of arms. The old version included a big crown to represent Finland as a Grand Duchy under the Swedish Crown (and later Russia). The crown was removed in 1920 because Finland ended up being a republic instead of a kingdom. There was no reason to include the crown in the painting, only the heart was necessary, so I think it has to have some meaning. Since the crown represents Finland’s connection to Sweden and kinda the opposite of independence or what Finland ended up being, it fits super well with my theory. Finland as part of Sweden or Russia is the cis man shield Mike the Brave uses.)) 

Hawkins is a symbol of the dad’s hold on Mike, the forced conformity, generational trauma, patriarchy and values carried from the parents to their children. As I have previously explained, a house or a town can represent a person, and this is the case with e.g. the Byers house and Hawkins. The idea that Mike’s actual last name is literally Hawkins fits this perfectly and makes the connection even more obvious.

Okay, one more thing before getting back to T85S2. I went to rewatch the S2E9 scene where Hopper talks about being a black hole and I have some notes. Here we go:

[Hopper] “I’m not mad, kid. I just want to know where you’ve been. That’s all.”
[El] “To see Mama.”
[Hopper] “Okay. How’d you get there?”
[El] “A truck.” -> more specifically a yellow Peterbilt truck
[Hopper] “A truck?”
[El] “A big truck.”
[Hopper] “A big truck? Whose truck was it?”
[El] “A man’s.”
[Hopper] “A man’s?”
[El] “A nice man.” -> kinda like Murray in S5 with his truck
[Hopper] “Okay. So let me just get this straight in my head. So a nice man in a big truck, he drove you to your mama’s, and then what? Your Aunt Becky gave you those clothes and that makeup?”
-> El gets out of Hawkins to her mama (close to truth) in a Peterbilt truck
-> Peter is the half-truth and way to the real story
-> The truck is “a man’s” and yellow, it’s the “story” that gets El (Mike) towards the truth
-> El gets “those clothes” and “that makeup”: without context you could very well interpret this to be women’s clothes and typical feminine makeup
[El] “I… I shouldn’t have left.”
[Hopper] “Mmm-mmm. No. No, this isn’t on you, kid. I should’ve been there. I should never have lied to you about your mom. Or about when you could leave. A lot of things I shouldn’t have done. Sometimes I feel like I’m… Like I’m just some kind of black hole or something.”
[El] “A black hole?”
[Hopper] “Yeah, it’s a… You know, it’s this thing in outer space. It’s like, it sucks everything towards it and destroys it. Sara had a picture book about outer space. She loved it.”
-> Demogorgon is called a “thing” many times (this is possibly also a The Thing reference)
-> Demogorgon was framed next to “outer space traveler” in S1E8
[El] “Who’s Sara?”
[Hopper] “Sara? Sara’s my girl. She’s my little girl.” 
-> Hopper refers to El as a “kid” but to Sara as his “girl”
[El] “Where is she?”
[Hopper] “Well, that’s kind of the thing, kid. She, uh… She left us.”
-> “kind of the thing”, as I keep saying, The Thing poster is in the basement for a reason
-> Especially with the “Mike” name epiphany, Mike is not who she says she is. Sara is like the Thing, pretending to be a normal man, in plain sight.
-> the kid vs she contrast again
-> Hopper doesn’t say Sara died, she just “left us” (with the “uh…” too)
[El] “Gone.”
[Hopper] “Yeah. The black hole. It got her.”
-> Hopper got her. Or the Demogorgon got her. Meaning the dad and transness.

T85S2 color coding

As with T85S1, S2 has especially helped with figuring out the color coding. I had never quite figured out the meaning of blue. I had some ideas but they didn’t completely fit together. Now with the blue flowers I was forced to reconsider everything and I think I finally have answers. I was pretty close before but still restricted by my previous assumptions of what blue usually means. When I let go of them and only focused on what the show was telling me, I could build a functional framework that made sense.

I’ll start by explaining my thought process. The blue color is clearly associated with the flowers and the ghost, so it can’t be the “boy” color. This was pretty clear in the main series too, since Sara’s hair tie is blue and it seems blue would be the final “answer” or reality in some way (partially based on the country allegory but also just in-show color coding). Blue can’t mean “girl” either, since that’s what pink means. It can’t simply mean “truth” either, because that’s what red means (among other things), it has to be more specific. And then I realized: blue in ST means trans (woman). That’s what Mike is afraid of, what Mike is (wears a lot of blue), the truth and simultaneously “girl” but with some relation to “boy” too. Mike’s “soul” (the ghost and MF) is blue. The real story is blue. It all makes sense. (And fits nicely with my Nausicaä theory and the blue dresses.)

So the scenes where Will encounters the blue Mind Flayer are about the “man” of Mike encountering the truth of Mike’s transness. And it is infecting/possessing/overtaking Will. The MF is blue in Joyce’s drawing not because blue means “boy” and the mom wants Mike to be a boy, but because Joyce can see the truth (metaphorically) that Mike is trans. Joyce represents both the future Mike and the mom, so this could be a case of her being future Mike (or the mom too, since at least Henry’s mom realized he was “broken”). 

In S2 Joyce also points out the tunnels Will drew were blue while the storm was red. And these tunnels were “killing” and spreading, and some men were literally killed in them (+ Hopper almost killed). This fits with the woman killing the man, as I’ve explained. Will’s tunnel visions looked a bit like the nervous system communicating, which fits with the “woman” being in the brain. Hopper mistakes the tunnel drawing for vines, and vines represent the male body/”man”. With the blue = trans interpretation, these points can coexist and function together: puberty and the male body are part of Mike’s transness, and someone representing the patriarchy and toxic masculinity would take the body being male to mean the person is a man. But Hopper is wrong. (In a sense blue could mean AMAB, but it definitely has the trans woman aspect too.)

The clearest and most undeniable clue comes from Daniel’s experiments (like with the green goo in S1). He mixes the blue flower juice with the green liquid (= future), and that is the key to his escape attempt. They are very clear with the color mattering. Now it’s not a flower anymore, it’s just the color blue being mixed with the color green and overpowering it. The transness (= blue) overpowers conformity (= green). Since it’s not just the flower juice but both green and blue mixed, this means the green matters too. It’s the future. Mike’s future will be trans. (This fits with WW’s magic ball being blue and WW being the future/being able to see into the future.)

If we think about the country allegory stuff and the flags, this interpretation fits pretty well. Blue + yellow = the lie and past (Sweden) of Mike thinking she is a cis boy/man. Adding yellow (= lie/”story”) to blue (= trans woman) results in Mike pretending to be a man. With Finland there is no yellow, but white instead. I’m kinda thinking white could mean “truth” or something similar (in contrast to yellow and grey with the Ugly Duckling story, and Mike wearing a white shirt in that one scene where Will says telling the truth can be difficult). The Japanese flag doesn’t have blue but it does have red and white, which could mean the truth of Mike’s past trauma. (Btw, someone else has started to catch onto the Japan stuff, at least a little bit.) This fits because the abuse wasn’t related to Mike being trans, it wasn’t caused by that nor did Mike “become” trans because of it. The Russian (and US) flag has blue, white and red, which could mean the truth of Mike’s trauma relating to her transness. It’s more about the current time, where Mike’s transness is the “issue”. All or some of these could very well be coincidences/me overinterpreting, but I do think the blue-yellow especially has the meaning of lies, “story” and “cis man”. It’s associated with byler for a reason.

Mike wears blue and blue can be paired with multiple colors, each with a slightly different meaning (like in the flag example). This is because ST is a story about being trans, so we will view it from different angles. It can be good, bad, scary, freeing and so many other things depending on the context.

A subtle detail I noticed: the exits from the sewer tunnels are blue, while the exit from the mine is purple. The end of the sewer tunnel corresponds to the deepest depths of the mine, that’s where we are heading, that’s the “northeast” (and leads to Wood Monster Daniel). The mine exit is the opposite way. We are going back to the lie and away from the real story.

For red I think I already had a pretty good framework but it got updated with this reconsideration. Previously I thought red and blue should be opposites, but now I don’t think that anymore. Rather, they compliment each other. Both are about the truth, but different parts of it. Red is more trauma-related while blue is trans-related. It actually makes sense to separate them for this, since the truth is that they are separate. Even though Mike subconsciously thinks they are linked, that isn’t the truth. Mike’s dad didn’t make her trans or abuse her because she was trans. (Purple meaning blindness fits this quite well, although I’m not sure if it’s intentional. It’s the conflation of blue and red, and Mike is “blind” or “under an illusion” when she thinks the abuse and her gender identity are causally related.)

The UD, Hopper’s pills, the flowers on that box next to Hopper in S2E4 and the flower on Billy’s mother’s dress are both red and blue because they hold both truths, not because red and blue are somehow opposites that are fighting. I guess they have a type of opponency since red is like actually “bad” while blue isn’t. As in, the abuse Mike went through really shouldn’t have happened but Mike being trans shouldn’t be a problem. It’s okay.

So my reasoning for red meaning trauma came primarily from the storm (the source), Mind Flayer flashbacks and Vecna’s S4 Mind Lair being red. We saw traumatic memories in both the storm and in the red mind world. The other meaning is “truth”, and it fits since the trauma happening is the truth. If Will had a red crayon, he could have drawn a real fireball, aka told Joyce the truth. The compass needle is another major point for this. But what about the gates being red, or the red roses? 

My big realization was that red leads to truth, it’s the way to truth. It’s the gate, it’s the red rose on the Creel house door, it’s the compass needle, it’s the power dial when power is turned on (= more electricity and Will’s connection to the Demogorgon), and it’s the red world leading to the real world (which Max calls their exit, oh and the exit signs are literally red, too). It isn’t necessarily the destination, but the way to it. And this actually fits with the trauma interpretation. What do Holly and Max and eventually Mike have to do before they can escape Camazotz? That’s right, they have to face their trauma. Trauma is the hard middle-stage and roadblock to freedom. That’s why you have to get through the red gate if you want to reach the (blue) UD and get through the red world if you want to reach the real world. As I have explained many times, the transition, the in-between, the journey is the difficult part, because you have to come to terms with your trauma and accept yourself. (Maybe Coke being red is related to it representing the midway/gateway to truth? Max is also called Red in T85S2E8 and her name is in red in her DnD book. Is she the way to the truth? Kinda.)

Max’s drawing of the Creel house door (with the rose) was the key to figuring out the pieces in Vecna’s mind were from that house. Also, as Nancy points out, the rose was on a window. The Creel house door combines 3 different entryway motifs: the door, the window and the color red. Henry’s legendary S4E7 monologue properly starts (with the music and all) from the door. S5E2 ends with Henry closing that door. It is very significant and represents the boundary between worlds, like the gates. 

After digging some more, I realized there are actually multiple red doors in ST. When El is looking for Heather in her void in S3E3, she encounters these symbolic elements that lead her to the next: first a mailbox, then a red door, and finally a bathtub with ice and Heather (in a red swimsuit). These are of course part of Heather’s actual house, but I believe their purpose is primarily symbolic. The red door leads to the truth: Heather (girl) and the abuse memories. In S1 and 2 we have the Ives house door, which is both red and has a stained glass window. In S2 you can also see red flowers (probably roses) in the background. This red door leads to truth like all the other ones.

A red-blue detail in T85S2 is the lighting when El tries to help Mike overcome her fear. El is in red while Mike is in blue. What El tells Mike is the way out of the golem prison, so in that way this works. But Mike being inside the blue and then going away from it is the opposite we want, right? Why would Mike defeating her fear result in transness being destroyed? I think this is a case of the story both needing to still be unfinished (as in the characters can’t reach the true ending yet), but also convey the core messages of the show. Also, if you watch carefully, right after Mike almost gets out of the golem, Charlie blows up the mine and this leads to all the other real story connection destruction (bridge explosion, burning flowers, gate closing). Mike never fully got out on her own, it was the gate closing + El’s powers that ultimately saved Mike from Wood Monster Daniel. 

Continues in PART 33.

News shoes Stranger Things x PUMA : LaMelo Ball unveils three sneakers inspired by the upside-down world 🤩

Any Steve harington fans??

I was just rewatching stranger things and gosh...no matter how many times i watch it always makes me sooo nostalgic. How the hell did it end in the blink of an eye? i’m literally sitting here staring at my wall, totally hollow. missing everything.The retro Hawkins vibes, the basement D&D games, and watching those tiny kids grow up right on our screens. it was my absolute favorite show and now that it’s over, i’m honestly just lost.And the ending 0f s5 was devasting. I was just questioning my existence after watching it. Does anyone else feel this way??

I was just rewatching stranger things and gosh...no matter how many times i watch it always makes me sooo nostalgic. How the hell did it end in the blink of an eye? i’m literally sitting here staring at my wall, totally hollow. missing everything.The retro Hawkins vibes, the basement D&D games, and watching those tiny kids grow up right on our screens. it was my absolute favorite show and now that it’s over, i’m honestly just lost.And the ending 0f s5 was devasting. I was just questioning my existence after watching it. Does anyone else feel this way??

Season 1: A kid goes missing, his mom loses her mind over blinking Christmas lights, and a telekinetic eggo-eating girl shows up.

Season 2: Same town, different monster, but now with giant shadow-spiders and demodogs.

Season 3: The Cold War comes to a local shopping mall, and the teenagers get trapped in a Russian secret base hidden behind an ice cream shop.

Season 4: A terrifying evil wizard from the upside-down starts killing teens with psychic trauma while everyone's favorite high school jock-turned-babysitter drives around a van with a stoner.

Season 5: ...(what could it be !!)

"Eddie Munson from Stranger Things season 4 is directly inspired by Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three case."