(This will be my last post/theories before ST4 finally releases. Hope you enjoy it given little time we have left.
I’ll probably do just one small post right after this one about when (if ) I will watch ST4 & what I’ll do from May 27th to July 1st & beyond. Just to let you know about some things so I don’t worry anyone who follows me.
Keep in mind this is something I see more happening in Vol. 2. Or when Will & El reunites in the later parts of the story. Don’t expect it to be really present in Vol. 1.
Here it is now. Hope you enjoy it.)
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Will and True Sight in S4.
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So in Season 4, we’re going to meet the new and let’s hope, not going to create inconsistencies, monster called Vecna.
We have already talked about the parallels that exist between that character and many other things in ST such as Will, Billy or even El. But one thing that connects it to Will and that I think is important is that they both have “True Sight” or a version of it, at least as the show presents it or may present it for Vecna, and I think this will come into play.
I’ve noticed not so long ago that Will’s eyes on his poster were very unusual. More brown-ish. Which reminded me of when Will got possessed by the Mind Flayer when his eyes became dark brown and were he had True Sight.
At the time, he described it as “being caught between two slides” which also reminded me about all the character posters where we have all the characters being in the middle of two different version of the same place location they are in, the outside world as we know it and the Upside Down. They are caught between two slides.
Given the main inspo that is behind this season, Nightmare On Elm Street especially Dream Warriors, plus many others such as the one we’re going to talk about down under this post, Vecna’s powers will be to likely be able to drag people into the Upside Down, enter their minds, manipulate their dreams, nightmares or memories and create visions or illusions. Or something similar to those things.
It’s something that Will, Billy & El have all experienced in some ways. Billy and Will more than anyone but this time it seems that the people who were usually the main victims of the Upside Down will not be at the center of it this season. Instead it’s the other character who most of the time went against the Upside Down who will fall victim to it. And I think that they may be helped and even win because of Will & El when they finally arrive in Hawkins.
We know that Will & El’s storyline this season is going to be mostly about non-supernatural struggles and of course identity related issues. It also has been a long time coming that the two of them shares interactions together and develop a bond given they have a mysterious connection that is yet to be explained.
But at some point they’re going to get back into that plot anyway (El more than anyone in that group it seems) and I think we can bring that non-supernatural arcs they had for most of the season plus that bond they built this season for what awaits them in Hawkins and of course, in Vol. 2.
However both of them, especially El, seems to be targeted by bullies and seems to suffer from severe harassment. Yet Will is unable to really do anything about it and can only just comfort her or help her get through it.
And this is where I think many VSF movies will or might come into play and the “Alan Turing” element too.
*Every movie mentioned or shown under this are on the VSF movies list and are therefore official inspos regardless the way they were used*
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*Already did a first part about Stranger Things & The Matrix but connected to El this time. You can find it in the index post if you’d like to read it.*
Stranger Things,Will&The Matrix. (2/2)
Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer. He is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He also was very important during WW2 as he helped intercept transmissions of the enemy.
Yet his ending is quite a tragic one, Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He accepted hormone treatment with DES, a procedure commonly referred to as chemical castration, as an alternative to prison. Turing died on 7 June 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as a suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning.
So we can see why Alan Turing is something Will would be into given his nerd status and why the Duffers chose that specific historic figure for Will.
Now given what the man did, people assume that what this may hint is that Will will intercept a transmission or message from a group like the Army, probably connected to El so they can get her back which could very well be possible. But I have a feeling there could be another meaning behind that choice, especially since the monsters of the Upside Down have once been compared to the Nazis.
And this is where The Matrix comes in, which depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality and computer generated world, the Matrix, which intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias “Neo”, uncovers the truth, he joins a rebellion against the machines along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix.
The Matrix is all about freeing your mind, waking up from a dream and discover your true self and abilities. Which seems to be what our characters this season are going through. Plus The Matrix has an iconic element which is it’s code, green and falling like a rain.
There seems to be some inspiration abour that in the Season 3 teaser which gave us the Russian code as a teaser and was shown looking very similar to this.
(Edit: I just realised, “when blueandyellow meets in the west” blue+yellowmakesgreen just like the Matrix code. *wink wink* )
And of course the first minutes of the movie itself is very reminiscent of what is in this teaser:
When humans go into The Matrix and are awaken, they develop certain abilities that allows them to bend The Matrix and it’s logic to their will.
But given the Alan Turing connection Will has, I think it’s interesting to point out the parallel between the two.
They both their own self-given nicknames, “Neo” for Thomas and Will The Wise for Will. Both are into computer stuff and both are outcast in their world. They both experience weird dreams or visions in their world that are extremely real and are mysteriously connected to the surreal world they have experienced. Both also “died” at some point within their story but came back to life shortly after.
There’s also the element of The Matrix being a trans allegory given the fact it’s two creators are trans which fits with Will’s sexual identity issues and how discovering and accepting yourself allows you to explore of your own self.
One striking similarity is how Will in the last episode of Season 1 has a vine going inside him similar to how Neo has some sort of tube going inside. The similarities doesn’t stop there since the world in which these two events happen are extremly similar, a desolate, cold and dark work. Few differences seperate the two as for Neo it is the real world while for Will it is the Upside Down.
At the end of the movie, Neo discover or realises of if you will that he is the chosen one. Someone who is supposed to free the people trapped in The Matrix and show them the truth. It is then that he is able to see the code of the Matrix in any location and is able to surpass all the other people, machines and programs are awaken with abilities that none of the other have.
He does so via his love for Trinity or should I say Trinity accepting that she loves him and giving him a sign that she does indeed love him. (*wink wink* Make of that what you want but I think you know what I am implying for Will here. No it’s not El, it’s… someone else as David Harbour said. “when blueandyellow meets in the west”…)
In the context of Will having True Sight or some version of that, I think it is interesting to consider the possibility of Will being able, just like when he senses the Mind Flayer, to see through or be unaffected by Vecna’s abilities.
It is one of the effect of True Sight in D&D. Seeing through illusions and other weird abilities changing the perception.
Or if he does get affected he may be able to see through it and how it works, cracking a code and maybe work around them or even manipulate part of Vecna’s illusions or visions. Using his powers against him even. Defeating the Nazis in some ways.
This is where he could come in and try to help the others who suffer from it, as in Max, Nancy, Robin, Steve or even El since she seems to be in bad shape in the trailer during some UD encounter. (Plus if we take the new D&D campaign for what it is, as @kaypeace21 pointed out, the dice landing on an 11 might not be good for her nor our heroes because perhaps she won’t be able to win or go toe to toe with the threat this season as it works differently.)
Since he experienced it himself and knows how it works better than anyone else, he could help her and the others defeat Vecna by making them learn how True Sight works.
In that way, we may change the dynamic that’s been established before where everyone saves Will. This time it’s him who saves or help them go against the threat.
This is where perhaps the Luke and Leia dynamic could come between El and Will, if El gained also a similar connection to the UD. We could have a similar dialogue to Return of The Jedi that I pointed out not so long ago where Luke reveals to Leia they are twins and that she has a connection to the Force too. Put True Sight instead of the Force and it works perfectly, well… I don’t know about the twin part but you never know.
But that would mean that Will would have to put himself in danger and actually face the enemy for real this time which didn’t go so well for him last time.
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Given the fact El gets bullied and faces a lot of challenges this season and Will is there to witness most of the time, he may try to step in and protect her at some point to help her unlike the other times when he didn’t do it. Will has never been one to take action on it’s own unless he is pushed into a corner. It would be some nice development for him if that’s the case.
If he feels guilty to not have been able to do more for El and the others, he may try to face Vecna to protect El which could put him in grave danger. We know the Byers can take after one another’s characteristics, it wouldn’t surprise if Will is El’s Jonathan. If something really bad happens at the Roller Rink, I could see him trying to avoid that for El once again.
One movie points to that, it’s called Willow. To make it short, Willow, a farmer, is entrusted with the task of delivering Elora *wink wink*, a princess who is destined to defeat the evil Queen Bavmorda, to the humans to keep her safe. However, he faces a lot of obstacles.
Willow is an aspiring sorcerer and even gets a magic wand (who can throw lightning) to help him through his journey. During the final battle, he helps many of his companions & allies through magic and even defeats the evil Queen because of it, who almost sacrificed Elora by using her rituals. She ends up banished because of Willow who tricks her into using her rituals by attacking him after making her think Elora has dissapeared.
He then gains a magic book because of him saving the world. Again I could see that happening for Will if he tries to help El and tricks Vecna by using his powers against him.
There’s also Dream Warriors, the obvious inspiration for Stranger Things 4 where teens are trying to fight Freddy in their dreams by using some form of supernatural abilities. One character is probably like the most obvious inspo for Will, since he is also called Will and is into board games. (It’s also implied just like Will at the end of season 2 who almost killed himself by suggesting to close the gate, he may have almost taken his life because of Freddy which made him lose his ability to walk.)
In his dreams, he becomes the Wizard Master and uses lightning to fight Freddy. Unfortunately he dies but he was able to hold his own for a moment as he destroyed one of Freddy’s illusions which mocked him for having lost his ability to walk.
Now it made me think about Will’s strange actions in the Upside Down in Season 1 where he was able to manipulate the lights in a way that’s very different from the others. He was able to be extremely precise in his usage of the objects to communicate with Joyce.
He was even able to put some music on the radio which is like extremely weird for just a normal boy. It fits with the theory he has been some sort of psychic way before the events of Season 1. Electrokinesis would be an interesting power to have and it would be very different from El’s powers.
However just like Neo who can only really use his abilities in The Matrix, I could see Will’s powers only being able to manifest fully when he is in the Upside Down. This would allow some form of balance to not make him too OP compared to the other characters. (Plus it may question even more the connection he has with the UD and that they keep marketing into ST4. *wink* NeverEnding Story *wink*, @ghostgirlinsatin will surely approve. (Well we gotta have some sort of chosen one trope in there just like with The Matrix. ))
I mean electrokinesis is not something you can miss on the VSF movies list anyway. (I like Thor: Ragnarok and Gandalf being there, surely doesn’t seem to hint at anything especially when both gain and awaken new powers by facing an evil threat.)
Thinking about it Avengers: Age Of Ultron also comes to mind, Wanda who got her powers from the Mind Stone tries to get into Hawkeye’s mind but he stops her by electrocuting her. (And her twin comes to save her after that. Funny…)
Hawkeye had previously been possessed by Loki via the same Mind Stone. Nice to subvert that again and ST Twitter did associate Will with Hawkeye so it’s a win win situation for us. Maybe Will could do that to Vecna if he tries to get into too much personal stuff inside his head…
Now this could happen in many ways as I have said above but regardless of whether Will faces Vecna or not or his abilities work on him, I don’t think Will will leave ST4 without any scars or reveal about his character.
But reversing his previous role into the story by using the same ability that once scared him to help others and stand against the monster would be a good development for him especially going into the final season. Especially if the Willel relationship comes into play and serves to something. And perhaps more if there is more.
Well… whatever that may look like for him.
But using the lightbulb and red bike from Season 1 seems really interesting for what his arc might be about this season, I can only hope for some good stuff. Especially when it’s so cryptic and that it seems to want to take us back to the beginning.
I am craving for some answers but I’ll have to wait a bit more longer for that I think.
Almost two or three years (I think ?) since ST4 was officialy announced and one year and a few months since the official marketing campaign started and we still have no idea what this mean.
The previous theories was that Joyce and Will would get 003 and 004 but it turns out, at least on the surface, that it wasn’t about them at all. Or at least there wasn’t any element that could really connect to them apart for the few strong analysis/theories and metas about it.
We had a teaser centered around both Hopper and Eleven, 001 and 002.
003 was about the Creel and no matter the parallels and connections with other characters, there is nothing really concrete that can connect us to one character. Even if the Creel parallel the Byers in a lot of ways.
004 was about the Byers but they were put into the background instead while we were forced to focus on the boring love life of El and Mike and her life and feelings only since she moved to California. (We are four seasons in and I don’t care at this point, if the teaser didn’t make you realise something is wrong with this relationship, I don’t know what can. Next.) With small snippets of some plot including what looks like to be the military and some men we could guess are agents.
The only character that we didn’t see much that had more information about all of these teasers are Jonathan smoking and working at Surfer Pizza Boy where he likely has a new friend called Argyle. We also see Jonathan being very into the action against the military while protecting Mike and Will. Jonathan smoking is also clearly a representation of his mental state. He is clearly in a bad place for multiple reasons, he is far away from the place he really wanted to be and probably has even more responsibilities that are making him anxious.
Mike on the other hand received letters from El, is part of the Hellfire Club and we know he is gonna go to California to join them for whatever reason, probably for Spring Break. But Finn made Mike’s reason to go to California ambiguous while if we just take everything on the surface, there’s not much to be ambiguous about. He is also part of the action against the military from what we’ve seen in the teaser. We also know from Finn, at least from what I’ve heard, it could be not true, that Mike may have a bittersweet ending this season.
(As for Murray, we know he has been on the case of Hopper or some Russian mystery (including that mysterious phone call.)
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Joyce and Will are quite “absent” from the teaser or at least don’t have a lot of information or insight about their feelings or their lives in season 4. Joyce only has one shot in said teaser, and a few other shots in the trailer of things we already knew such as her rescue mission of Hopper and while Will has a bit more in the teaser, he doesn’t do much and nothing really gives us any insight about his situation. Plus he doesn’t really have anything else in terms of what’s in the trailer or stills. Sure, we got some ideas what it is going to be about such as apparently, struggles with his identity and love life but there’s not much from it too, plus every interview seems to contradict itself every time a new one comes out.
It’s quite bizarre because one is played by basically the biggest and most famous actress on the show and the character has been a main character since the beginning and who always play a vital role in the plot.
The other one basically started the story, is always at the center of the supernatural stuff and brings the character together. And was basically the main character of season 2.
The relationship between Joyce and Will has been essential to the show since season 1 particularly in the first two seasons.
And now nothing about their characters has been really revealed and explored since then. To the point that even the actors playing those characters have said they would like for them to come back together and play much more in scenes together.
It’s also frustrating when they’ve been put to the side in season 3 and Noah himself has stated that Will may get his own storyline seperated from the rest of the plot this season yet nothing has been shown of it’s existence. Or he was wrong about what it said, didn’t explain it well or
Either Joyce and Will’s respective storylines are too spoilery and have too many twists for ST4 or they clearly don’t do a lot of stuff in this season, as it seems to be the case.
So… what the f*ck?
THESE three gifs and only a photo for Will remain very cryptic among all the hints about season 4 on Twitter that after many of the teaser became more clear.
But these ones doesn’t seem to be clear, AT ALL.
So let’s analyse them, shall we ?
First let’s look at the order in which they were posted.
1.Will
2.Hopper
3.Joyce
4.El
Interesting order, whether it was intended or not, since Will was posted first, people were led to believe we were going to get a Will centric season this time around. Since season 3 was supposed to be it’s break… and we saw what a break meant for Will Byers in season 3 and that wasn’t pretty.
(Whether we are fools or were fooled remains to be seen though the future is not exactly promising for us right now.)
As for El and Hopper, it wasn’t really a surprise to anyone since they are the most liked and famous characters of the show. And it’s about time we take an interest about their real and more interesting storylines.
Joyce was another story. She seemed to have a pretty big arc in season 3 already and the only thing that everyone assumed she was going to do was trying to save or get to Hopper in Russia. But it seems she will be of a bigger importance in season 4 and that opened a lot of possibility with the new things that were announced later down the line.
So let’s break down each of those posts and see what could be connected between each of them. And what that could mean for Season 4.
1. For Will, it is after he destroyed Castle Byers with a baseball bat, his “safe space” built by him and his brother after their dad left. It comes after his fight between him and Mike which pushed him over the edge. During that same moment, El is investigating with Max, the Heather/Billy mystery who were both flayed at the time. After Flayed Billy gets his reaction when he realises who El is, Will feels the Mind Flayer again and touches his neck and realises that he is indeed back when Mike and Lucas comes to look for him.
2. For Hopper, it is episode 6 of season 2, after the Lab diagnosed, searched and experimented with Will about The Mind Flayer. Hopper contacts El on the radio but she is not there to respond since she left to see her mother and after that Chicago towards Kali. However she hears it in the Void in episode 7. He feels guilty over his fight with her and apologises for it. This also sets up their talk in episode 9 when Hopper talks to her about Sarah.
3. For Joyce, it is in season 1, after they’ve found Will’s body, believing he is not dead, she contacts Will in the Upside Down through the wall but fails to get him back. She then burts a hole through the wall hoping she can open a portal again. Right after that, Lonnie arrives at the Byers house to manipulate Joyce and to make profit off of Will’s death. He gaslights her by saying all of that is happening inside her head and use the example of her family to make a point. Right before that Jonathan arrives to say her mother was right but Lonnie completely refutes and dismisses that claim.
4. For El, it is in the first episode when she meets the boys in Mirkwood who were looking for Will. It is after she escape from Benny’s restaurant who was killed by Connie Frazier. Eleven had to kill two agents to escape from being captured by Brenner and his men. It is also probably the first time El was in the outside world and experienced a semi-“normal” thing. It is also moments after she opens the gate to the Upside Down, unleashing The Demogorgon who will take Will and kill multiple other people.
So let’s get the obvious out of the way:
We know El and Hopper are going to dive into their pasts and uncover things about themselves. This is no surprise to anyone, it’s been know for a long time. (Let’s hope it is well-written and doesn’t create inconsistencies though. ) So where does that leave Joyce and Will ? Will we learn something about their past and them too ? Will being queer is not a surprise to anyone, plus season 4 doesn’t seem to treat it as a big surprise and I don’t think, at least I hope they are just hinting at that.
What strikes me is that these four characters represents the two main parent-child relationships of ST. Will and Joyce, El and Hopper.
Both parents have lost a child, unfortunately by passing away for Sara and are both single parent. There’s many parallels between all these character like the tiger/lion plusieurs they share and of course many others like visual and scene parallels. (And both Joyce and Hopper are crying in these pics about something related to this element of their characters in some way. Which does seem to indicate that their feelings and relationships about their children are going to be important going into Season 4 in some way.)
Will and El both have suffered abuse from their respective ex-father figures and have been at the center or connected to the UD for a long time now. And we have yet to see anything about their relationship and the mysterious connection they have.
Plus the pics chosen here is the both of them being in Mirkwood at night, where it’s raining and where Mike is present. (“LT”, you’ll know what this means. )
So lots of interesting parallels, you can’t miss on them.
Now a quick theory, if Vecna the new baddie is supposed to be, like all the other monsters from previous seasons, some sort of reflection of the protagonists & their struggles.
It’s important to note that this character in D&D shares parallels with Will & even Joyce: wizard, true sight, afraid of growing old (immortality) and knowledge is an important part of that character. But one interesting aspect is that Vecna’s mother (in a version I’ve seen) was a “witch” and died by the hands of government officials of where they used to live. And Joyce calls herself a “witch”…
He also named his finger on his hand “witch” which in this next clip is something that Joyce used to mess with Will when she did her “witch” impression to Will.
Could this imply Joyce might die in that context ? Or have a fake death like Hopper, Will & El ? Because they all “died” and came back to life after that.
She could be targeted by whoever might want El and possibly Will. Would that mean she really dies ? I have no idea. Winona Ryder seems too much of an important actress to die that way and I don’t see the Duffers going that way. Plus it would leave her story to feel unfinished in many aspects.
It could be bold and move the plot but I don’t have any real evidence it may happen or at least clearly really happen in a way that puts a total end to her character. At best it’s just like Will, El and Hopper; she appears to be dead and everyone think she is but she isn’t.
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Now what I think is more likely is that either there are four big scenes in Season 4 that are centered around these four characters and are extremely sad (Noah did say he filmed a sad scene that are on his season 2’s scenes level)…
Or if we continue the plot route, it could be 4 big reveals and twists related to those characters, El seems to obviously be connected to what goes down at HNL & the Rainbow Room storyline and other weird stuff about her too (maybe UD related too, we’ll see); while Hopper seems to about his demons and that resurrection David keeps bringing up. (Vietnam, New York & Sara related too, maybe things about his family too…)
Now as for Joyce and Will, Joyce has the family connection, we thought about the Creel family given the mental health problems that seems to be present in her and how that connects to the whole thematic of Stranger Things 4 plus the Pennhurst Hospital location which could connect with Victor Creel or the Creel storyline. Or given the pic, it could also be related to Lonnie, we haven’t gotten much of their years together and the Byers seems to be the kind of people who prefers to hide their biggest pain and trauma. Plus I have heard the Duffers made her watch some movies that are extremely… weird… if that’s part of her character’s backstory. Outside of that I don’t have much of a clue.
Will on the other hand, well everyone has a club on what I think it might be, at least I hope, there’s many, powers, UD related, El related (possibly Lab related), his role in the overall story of ST and all the mysteries surrounding him… But all of this could come in such various ways that it’s impossible how they will do it or if they will do something about him, I have an idea but that’s for another post and probably something that might probably happen in Vol. 2. I don’t think the storyline he has is just Will is gay & miserable about it, it would reduce his character too much and would just raise eyebrows even more about what the Duffers are doing with him.
Regardless, whether this mean something or anything, we’ll see what all of this is about in a few days and possibly July 1st. If you have any other thoughts, feel free to share.
Thinking about how perfect the song “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John is in reference to the character of Will. Like specifically toward the end of the series, after coming out alive from all of the events.
Not only is it a symbol of survivorship, but the fact that it’s by Elton also feels extremely right to me.
For me, Mike in the airport was completely jealous. As Finn said Mike was clueless, there’s no way our boy would think Will might have a crush on him. He would be like “Oh… Will is holding a painting and it could be for his crush as El wrote in letter. Maybe it is very important for him that he couldn’t just leave it at home and brings all the way here”
That’s why his face was fucking weird when he asked about it
can’t WAIT to see micheal’s reaction when will makes it known that the painting is for him
Mike Wheeler will forever be tied to rainbows. Season 4 is no exception.
I apologize for the image quality, but in El’s room, there’s a poster on her wall of the United States. And on the poster, there’s this rainbow. Now, what’s funny about this poster is that we only see El’s room in four different scenes, but we’re only ever able to see the rainbow on the poster in shots with Mike. The only time El walked past it, they showed the bedroom at an angle that left the poster covered in darkness. When Mike walks by it, it’s in clear view. So, they specifically want us to associate this poster with Mike, right? Right.
Image 1: S4E3
Image 2: S4E4
If you watch these scenes, the poster stays on screen before Mike comes into the room and after he passes it. So it’s there for a while.
Anyway, the first shot happens right before El and Mike have their “talk”. Then the second is when he reads the note she left him. Now, I’m guessing that the reason they wanted to tie Mike to rainbow imagery in these scenes was to offer an explanation for his behavior via subtext (for those who care to look); answering the question of why Mike wouldn’t say he loves El. And it also continues the rainbow trend of Mike Wheeler seen in the other three seasons, which helps prove that those choices were intentional too.
We also know that the posters and images chosen in this show are picked for a reason. As an example from S4 as well, the Cali gang stands in front of a “last supper” painting in the same episode that the Russian prisoners eat their last meal. So, yes. This probably means something. And, ya know, there’s also the rainbow on the Muppets poster in Suzie’s room and the ones on El’s letter.
So, with everyone pulling screenshots of comments on Reel James’s S4 review, I couldn’t help but look through the comment section myself. There really isn’t much there that hasn’t already been mentioned, but this comment really stood out to me.
Now, I’m going to start by saying that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and if he truly didn’t like Finn and Noah’s acting in volume 1, that’s totally fair. I also want to reassure you that plenty of other reviews have praised these two so don’t fret. He didn’t like Noah’s acting in S3 either to give some bonus perspective.
Anyway! What I really want to point out is him describing Finn’s acting (which he usually likes) as wooden this season. Now, I’ve seen similar comments said about Finn regarding a certain scene from S3. Any guesses? Yeah, that’s right. It’s when El confessed her love to Mike and kissed him. A lot of people questioned Finn’s acting choice there and threw around words like “wooden” too. Never mind the fact that said people didn’t question the possible complexity of that scene because you know, clearly, Mike was just so shocked, confused, and in love that he couldn’t express the slightest bit of happiness. Oh well. Whatever.
That being said, Reel James is a M!leven stan (as seen in other comments posted on this tag) and he’s expressed some disappointment in the development of the couple throughout volume 1. So, who wants to bet that some of Finn’s “wooden performance” stems entirely from scenes like this:
El, who Mike should be ecstatic to be around after so long, is giving her boyfriend star eyes and he comes across as very dismissive from what we’re shown. This also seems to be the case when Mike is walking next to her in the airport, skating with El, later in the rink when she’s dragged off, and also potentially when he’s reading the letter she sent him. For a shipper who’s sold on a M!leven endgame, you would probably expect Mike to be very expressive, excited, and perhaps even passionate. And if El is coming across this way and Mike isn’t, people might feel like Finn just isn’t putting his all into the character.
But if we’re right (and I’m pretty sure we are), Finn is probably trying to convey that Mike is battling with internal conflicts that have to remain hidden from the audience until he himself understands them better. I would imagine playing a repressed and oblivious gay boy in the 80s isn’t the easiest thing to do. But if that’s what’s happening, we might see Mike say meaningful things to El (and others) without the right feeling to it; almost like the words are forced or empty. This is what I suspect at any rate because I’ve always loved everyone’s acting on this show and with how much the Duffers hyped Finn’s acting, in particular, saying he gives his best performance yet with that monologue we keep talking about, I’m not worried.
And when it comes to Noah, he’s always gotten a lot of praise for his acting (especially after S2) and there’s so much support for Will on this tag that I don’t think I need to reassure anyone about it. If anything, in S3 neither Noah or Finn had any big emotional scenes outside of the Byler fight and those are usually the type of scenes where people really notice acting skills. But we know they have emotional scenes in S4 at some point so this should be their time to shine. I’m just ranting now, so I’m gonna wrap this up.
Long story short: Finn’s “wooden performance” in S4 might have to do with Mike trying to force his relationship with El to work and altogether hide and deny any of his *ahem* gay feelings. But again, everyone’s allowed to have their own opinions on an actor’s abilities and I’m not trying to say this critic is wrong for feeling that way. I’m just trying to dissect possible explanations for why he wouldn’t like an actor he normally approves of.
I will happily accept any interaction between Murray and Byler. However, at a minimum, I’d love a scene where he’s watching Mike and El and just looking like ??? Then he sees Will and Mike talk or them just ignoring each other, and he goes “ohhhhhh”.
For me, Mike in the airport was completely jealous. As Finn said Mike was clueless, there’s no way our boy would think Will might have a crush on him. He would be like “Oh… Will is holding a painting and it could be for his crush as El wrote in letter. Maybe it is very important for him that he couldn’t just leave it at home and brings all the way here”
That’s why his face was fucking weird when he asked about it
Maybe the reason we’ve gotten no cali material is because, when it comes to mike and will, neither of them fucking know the definition of personal space
Im starting to think the surfer boy pizza gang is not even involved in anything supernatural. At this point, it just looks like they’re going on a fun road-trip with two stoners, a stoners little brother and stoners little brothers best friend who is secretly in love with him
What if, and hear me out, one of the Hawkins gang wishes Will a happy late birthday after they get there(Like someone else from the party or smth) and Mike just has a crashing realization what he did and that he completely forgot. He’ll then how Will didn’t even seem bothered and almost seemed used to it.
I could see his heart shattering at not only the fact he’ll think he’s a bad friend, but that he realized Will didn’t say anything so either he used to the treatment or didn’t expect anything for his birthday bc he figured El would be more important to Mike
Remember that throughout the season Mike has changed the status between him and Will. They went from just friends to best friends. Who’s to say that’s not just him working up to them being boyfriends?
