If You Noticed I Hadn't Been Posting As Much Recently, It's Because I've Been Travelling Europe For The

If you noticed I hadn't been posting as much recently, it's because I've been travelling Europe for the last three weeks. I visited Denmark, Germany, Czechia, Poland, and Turkiye - just wanted to share some of my favourite pictures from local landmarks and art galleries.

just thought about father's day for everyone in stranger things and nearly keeled over in pain

Oh they 100% gave El more of Henry's special power blood before NINA. The flayed were receiving the power blood through the Mind Flayer, but El's was being taken away.

I said this in another post but El needed to activate her powers in order to start NINA, so how would she regain them if she needs them to do the program in the first place? We know the powers originate from Henry's weird dimension blood type and they replicated him through blood transfusions. The Mind Flayer leech took the power blood away from El, but the lab gave her more to kickstart NINA. The rest of NINA was just training her.

Just look at the vial. It's a dark brown/black liquid. Kinda like how Will's veins turned black when he was under the influence of the Mind Flayer. Not red, but since Henry's blood type is different, we can assume it would also be a different color. (if the play shows the blood and it's red then let me know lol). But if not, red blood often turns brown after a certain period of time. So it's definitely blood either way.

(blood transfusions don't really work like this lol but it's a sci-fi show so suspend some disbelief)

This was the drug Brenner gave El to knock her out later. It's a completely different color. This one is more yellow and clear while the other was darker and thick. We are meant to assume the first drug was just to knock her out, so why use a different kind of drug? Wouldn't they just use the same drug twice to put her to sleep? Apparently not! And why have a different insertion method?

Yeah that first vial had Henry blood in it.

Peter Pan Parallels: Is The Upside Down Neverland?

Lately I've been thinking about Petergate and I came up with what possibly could be another angle to the already complicated Peter situation— what if the name Peter is a reference to Peter Pan?

I don't think this is the only reason that the name Peter becomes prominent, although the show itself does seem to contain other references to Peter Pan, and even creates a correlation between the Upside Down and Neverland.

Peter Pan as a character has origins in early works from author J.M. Barrie, and the Peter Pan story as known today originated in a play written by Barrie before being adapted into a book and subsequently several film adaptations. The story of course being about a young boy named Peter who brings some kids to a magical land where they can never grow old.

It's written very small, but Peter Pan is on the season 4 DNA board!

There are a few instances about never growing old in the show, and they usually come from Will or involve Will.

The first instance is from season 3 during the rain fight, where Mike exclaims that they "aren't kids anymore" and they can't "play games for the rest of their lives." This is then brought up again by Will in season 4, but in a much more hopeful lens.

And then we have the Upside Down, a magical land that appears to be somewhat stuck in time.

I say "somewhat" because I'm honestly unsure if the UD actually frozen in time, or if there is just an impression of Hawkins the night that Will was taken. However, the emphasis this season on clocks as well as Nancy's mention of being in the past does at least allude to the idea of being frozen in time.

Does the UD actually function like Neverland and keep someone from aging? Will was only trapped in there for a week, not enough time to see if there was any anti-aging going on. Henry was in there for a few years, however since he changed so much physically it's hard to tell if he aged at all (and given that he was in his 30s, any aging wouldn't have been very apparent)

ALTHOUGH there could be a point to be made about the fact that Will and Henry were both able to survive in the Upside Down for as long as they did in the first place, maybe it has to do with both of their powers, but perhaps the UD was preventing them from dying?

Starting with Will, we know that he was in the UD for a week without any food or water. The body can survive that long without food, but water is another thing. The show makes a point to have Erica say this in season 3:

—which leads me to believe that they want to draw attention to the fact that Will was miraculously able to survive for so long in a place without any water. Perhaps the UD was able to keep him alive?

Something similar happens with Henry, too. It seems like his body was adapting to the new environment overtime, but still the details of his survival are vague and his ability to stay alive after all that time is still rather anomalous to say the least.

There's an indirect reference to the UD as Neverland in season one, when Troy states that "Will is in fairyland now with all the other little fairies." and while YES he means this in a derogatory way, the dialogue is still a way to point at the fact that Will really is in a magical land, and possibly even a hint at his powers.

Notice as well how Will's light magic bares a resemblance to pixie dust from the Disney movie.

Between Henry and Will, we can see both of them as being Peter Pan-like. Henry as Peter as in the one who lures children into his magical fantasy land, or Will as Peter the boy who doesn't want to/has trouble growing up.

Another aspect of Peter Pan is his shadow, which is detachable and seems to have a mind of its own. Which reminds me a lot of this:

Barrie's intentions behind what the shadow represents is pretty vague, although it has been tied to the idea of wholeness, Peter's attachment to the human world as well as duality, wholeness, and lightness within dark and darkness within light. (more to come later)

“invisible wounds” - aurora