Will Byers Has Powers - Tumblr Posts

yall know why im threading this

The “Will Has Powers” Basics Post

I’ve realized recently that whenever I talk about Will having powers, I kind of just expect everyone to be on the same page as me, without really explaining much of what lead me to believe he has powers in the first place. I don't really have a good foundation to point to.

So that's what I want this post to be, not really too detailed but more of an introductory post. I'll explain the basics of my Will has powers theories, why I believe he has powers, and what kinds of powers I think he has. I'll be using evidence I've used in a lot of other posts while also keeping it simplistic and not trying to add anything too speculative or theoretical.

Evidence & Powers #1) Nancy's Dialogue and Time and Light Powers

I think one of the easiest pieces of evidence and my usual go-to is Nancy's dialogue in 4x07 when the teens are in the Upside Down. Nancy remarks that the Upside Down is stuck on the day that Will went missing, and then brings Will up again in regards to the lights. Both of her pieces of dialogue here implicates Will as the one who froze time and got the lights to work the way they do.

"The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened."

"Will found a way. Will. He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights."

(So I used to think it was "The day the gate opened. The day Will went missing." and not "The day Will went missing. The day the gate opened." but after rewatching the scene it is actually the former. My bad.)

Now obviously Nancy wouldn't know that Will is responsible nor do I think she has some kind of psychic intuition, but the writers would know and are writing her dialogue in a specific way that points toward Will in both instances. Bringing him up by name not one, not two but three times places emphasis on him specifically. I think that

El opening the gate had a part in this, but if it was her solely then I think Nancy's dialogue would read as "The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day El opened the gate." rather than trying to tie Will into it in the first place. Moreover, the gates that Vecna is opening with El's powers don't seem to be updating the Upside Down to modern times, Will is an important piece of the puzzle.

The light thing is something that I do think is solely Will, given that gate opening isn't brought up and Nancy brings Will up by name twice in the same line of dialogue.

The word "found" here is also interesting because it could have two meanings.

A) Will stumbled upon the lights ability

B) Will created the ability to communicate with lights

Had Nancy said "Will stumbled upon a way to talk to Joyce through the lights" it would suggest that the lights is a rule from the UD that has always been there. Nancy saying that Will created the ability to talk through lights wouldn't make sense for her to say because Nancy wouldn't have access to that information. "Found" is the perfect balance between the two— it makes sense given Nancy's access to information while allowing enough room to imply that Will had something to do with it.

Evidence & Powers #2) Will as an Artist and Creation Powers

If you created a tv character who had magic powers, but you couldn't reveal it until the final season, how do you pull it off without it feeling out of nowhere? How do you build up the reveal without completely giving it away.

Well, I would do it by attributing his powers with aspects of the character that has already been built up and that the audience has become familiar with.

It's established that Will is an artist from season one, and his art continues to be important to the plot it nearly every season.

In season one, Joyce is able to correctly identify that El is not because Will's drawings are much more advanced than El's stick figures.

In season two, Will uses drawings in order to help visualize his now memories and creates a map of the tunnels.

Not much in season three, but Will does use charcoal in one scene to demonstrate visually how the shadow particles work.

In season four, Will creates a painting for Mike that becomes an important moment in the season and sets in motion important events for the future (aka byler endgame)

I will admit that this piece of evidence by itself is not enough to convince an audience that Will has a supernatural link. Will is an artist -> Will has powers is a pretty far stretch. But I think that this combined with some of my other evidence could support what kind of powers I think he has, which I think is some from of creation ability. Will has powers because of xyz -> Will is also an artist -> Will has powers of creation is a better argument and what I'm trying to get at.

Without getting into all of the chunky theoretics here, I believe it's possible that Will may have the ability to create whole lifeforms and vast worlds, such as the Upside Down itself and the creatures inside.

Evidence & Powers #3) Will the Wise, Fire Powers & Prophetic Abilities

This goes along similarly with what I said about using Will's artistry to foreshadow his powers, or using another facet of Will's character to hint at powers without giving it away altogether. Although, I would say that this piece of evidence is probably a lot more obvious than the previous bullet.

"Will the Wise" is Will's Dungeon's & Dragons name, which comes up pretty frequently in the show. Will the Wise is confusingly labeled as both a wizard and a cleric, although both classes are magic-users within DnD.

Each member of the party has a DnD class and character, although Will's is the one that get's brought up the most. The name Will the Wise is referenced—

Episode one when Will is playing DnD

In a flashback later in season one

The episode title "Will the Wise" from season two

And in season three when we have our most obvious piece of powers foreshadowing, when Will dresses up in a Wizard costume

During this same scene, Will says that he has "seen into the future" which is why I suggest that he may have prophetic abilities. Vecna displays a similar ability when he shows Nancy the future in her vision.

It's also possible that Will may have some kind of fire abilities, based on one of Will the Wise's attacks being "fireball." (@reikunrei made a really great post recently proposing that Will's fire powers might extend to some of his other abilities rather than being purely a fire attack, but alas I cannot find it ((I am so sorry Wilbur)))

Evidence #4) Continued Connection With Vecna

Another reason why I suspect that Will may have powers comes from a series of questions:

Why is Will the first one taken to the Upside Down?

Why choose Will as the host of the Mind Flayer?

Why continue to have a connection with Will?

I think I could write-off the first two as incidental if the show didn't make it a point to continue this connection through seasons three and four, that along with Nancy's dialogue in season 4 discussed earlier. Could Will's disappearance have been a coincidence? Sure. Could Vecna have just needed Will to be a spy, and is completely disposable to him? It's possible. But if so, what is the narrative reasoning for maintaining this connection? Is it to just for the convenience of having Will as a beast sensor?

Something else that tips me off about Will's disappearance is the why it happens as well, which we aren't really told. We are told with Barb that the demogorgon is attracted to blood. Nancy and Jonathan later use this tactic to lure it to the house.

And yet with Will, we don't see any blood. In fact, they make a point to emphasize this when Hopper tells Joyce that there was no blood on his bike.

Evidence #5) Will's focus in season 5

Despite Will always being my favorite character and loving him so dearly, I didn't start seriously theorizing until I saw this tweet by Discussing Film, which came out shortly after vol. 2 was released.

I know that outside cast and crew comment shouldn’t be taken as gospel, as they have lied before for the sake of spoilers. Which is why I put this at the end, and why it’s not my only piece of evidence.

But still, it’s not like every comment is a lie, and even then, wouldn’t this be a wierd thing to lie about? And kinda cruel? Imagine saying “Oh, this gay character who hasn’t gotten a lot of screentime is going to be a focus.” only to say “Haha just kidding, he’s actually unimportant!” So I’m inclined to believe that they’re telling the truth.

So if this statement is true, then how could Will not have powers? How would you make a character the center of a show about the supernatural, if he has no tie to the supernatural at all?

WILL HAS POWERS - MORE EVIDENCE -- THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL... LITERALLY

Yall ready for this? *dances*

So ya know how in the very beginning of season 4 ep 1, Brenner is shown talking to 010 in the lab room in a flashback? And what Brenner's doing is DRAWING on a paper (with Crayola crayons) and asking 010 to tell him what he's drawing by using his powers, not by looking?

Okay, now keeping that in mind, you know how the upside down is stuck in Nov 6, 1983? So when characters are in the upside down version of Hawkins, they can't see any physical changes that have been made to Hawkins since that very day (and probably second) Will went missing? As shown when Nancy goes to her house in the upside down in s4, and she doesn't have any guns and everything is completely frozen to that snapshot in time?

This Means there is no way when Will was stuck in the upside down in season 1, that he could have seen the alphabet letters Joyce wrote on the wall for him, because it was after Nov 6 that she did that. And yet he somehow saw them? When they couldnt have shown up in the UD? There is no way he saw them, unless......

The writers screwed up

...... unless......

Will has powers that are the exact same as those demonstrated by 010. 010 sees drawings, Will sees the letters.

Let's look a little further here, at just some parallels that reinforce Will's similarities to this scene.

Parallel #2

What does papa draw first? The sun. Will is associated with what? Light, and the color yellow. In Will's scene where he communicates with the letters Joyce wrote on the wall, he uses what as a medium? Lights. Further establishing a connection between these two characters, and these two scenes.

Now let's look at the context of the scenes and a parallel with vecna (who's will's evil brother from another mother, apparently).

Parallel #3

What happens after papa asks 010 to identify the objects he drew? Papa then asks him to look and see what is happening in the other rooms. 010 sees signs of henry creel/01's massacre (red, blood) and tells papa about it. So basically 010 acts as a spy who warns papa of the danger that is vecna. Will does the same when he warns others of the mindflayer, particularly mike, who's the one who called Will a "spy" in season 2. Oh, and mike and Brenner just so happen to be heavily paralleled together these season.

Parallel #4

What does 010 like to use to answer to papa before he goes in the private room to run tests? A magic eight ball. Those are known to magically give answers about any question you have, especially if it involves an event that will happen in the future. 010 likely purposely controls the answer. What does Will have in his self portrait as Will the Wise? A blue crystal ball. What do crystal balls do? They either reveal what is going on in another place, or another time, particularly in the future. And will displays his ability to show things that are not physically present through his drawings, and he potentially predicts the future with his drawings. DnD also predicts the future, which he clearly plays and is the most obsessed over playing out of the friend group (at least in s3). Atleast, he's the most dedicated. Dedicated for life. Basically, magic 8 balls and crystal balls both show supernatural psychic shit.

Parallel #5

Now, jumping ahead to when Lucas and Max are in the creels house and waiting for vecna to come. Lucas and max show notes and DRAWINGS to each other to communicate. What does vecna first say when he gets a hold of Max's mind after that? "You think i dont see everything you're doing?" Either he's bluffing here about it and wasn't actually able to read the notes (he could only read their minds), or he really is able to see what they wrote along with everything else they were doing, which we as an audience know woukd be thanks to his POWERS.

Basically, Will can't have seen Joyce's letters on the wall without powers. Only one character has been able to see what people were drawing in the real world while they were in the upside down, and that's Vecna, and he used his mind powers to do it. And 010 is a character that perfectly encapsulates and reminds the audience of the idea that one CAN in fact read things between the UD and the real world (since he can read it from the void), but only with powers.

Parallel #6

And on top of that, they deliberately show that Papa is using Crayola crayons to draw for 010, and Joyce specifies in season 2 that she got Will Crayola crayons for his birthday.

---------------------------------

Why would they purposely show a character (010) reading random drawings, of all things, when they could have shown him doing something else, unless it's foreshadowing?? He could have been doing any other puzzle, he could have been identifying photos like Brenner did for El in season 1 flashbacks to the lab, but no, it's drawings. I think the writers want to show us that it is only possible to see what someone in the real world is writing/drawing if one has powers.

Also, I mean come on, they purposely threw in a completely new character just for the beginning of the show, who's a polite and quiet kid, and right off the bat associate him with drawings, powers, the sun, and vecna. Will is in one way or another associated with all those things too.

Idk what powers Will will have, how much they will tie into time/the upside down. Can he control the UD or the future with his drawings? What is he capable of seeing in the UD? What can he reveal? Idk what I'm saying anymore lol but I want to see him with powers!!! I want to knowwwww

~sorry this was sloppy~

To those interested, I have a post coming up about birth and memories and will/el!!! This post was just actually an offshoot to some other theory I was thinking about (you know, came up with it while I paced around outside barefoot mumbling to myself about theories, normal things)

Sorry if this has been said before

Peace!!

very, very interesting.....

Interesting....

Yes yes yes yes yes to everything yes haha

when you're pretty hot shit down at the local horror lab for being sooo good at making the lights go in a circle:

when you do have psionic abilities but you're just a smol bean with a lot of feelings and you suck at the light circle game:

ok but seriously who is doing this in Will's room? Will? or Henry, who I'd wager is even better at the light circle game than Two?

Joyce and Holly both got led down the hallway to Will's room by flickering lights only to be nearly attacked by the demogorgon in that same spot in the wall. what is that about? is that just Will walking down the hallway, not realizing he's leading them to danger? could that be Will making those lights go in a circle in his room? if so, how'd he get so good at it so fast?

one more thing, when the tape starts playing in Will's room, that's not just a matter of on/off electricity. this stereo is battery powered, and that play button has to be physically pressed. see it pop back up when it stops. whoever turned on this radio is not just able to intentionally or unintentionally screw with electricity, but has to be telekinetic.

I would say it must be Henry, but turning on that stereo with that song playing is too personal an act, too identified with Will, to not be Will. but so then Will is telekinetic..? but only here? ?

AAAHOLYFUJCKLOOK ONE OF WILL’S ATTACKS IS CALLED DORMANT POWERS

(i just realized i ss’d this as he was blinking lol)

keep thinking about how noah said that “the duffers are smart and do everything on purpose” and how they’ll explain why will is “the first victim”. thinking about how will being abducted and purposely kept in the ud and literally “impregnated” with the creatures that belong to henry’s world (dimension x) might be more symbolic than it seems to be and might point at his possible creation powers that he’s not even aware of. something about “he wants to kill everyone but not me” and “there was a time when i had hoped to have you by my side” and “remake the world into something beautiful”…something about henry and will being mirroring opposites of each other, henry only being able to destroy but needing someone who can create…

Will HAS to go into the Upside Down willingly. It HAS to be his choice. He can’t be kidnapped again. This is his journey and coming of age and he has to accept the call to adventure and cross the threshold of his volulition. He has to want it.

Will has some kind of destiny involving the Upside Down that’s unresolved. It’s like El with NINA. Yes they kept things from her but she chose to go back with Owens, which is what Will is going to have to do. Thus becoming “master of both worlds” and being able to complete his journey.

Someone was switched at birth at this point like why this many references to that... that's so weird 🤔 it's also often connected to mrs. Wheeler or Nancy somehow like she tells Nancy that in season 3 and then this book is near a book with Nancy's name... What is up with this

Was someone swapped at the hospital? Will? El? Karen and another baby? Nancy??? So random idk

Is the Upside Down Will's mindscape?

So I’ve been thinking about what exactly the Upside Down is. Is it another planet? Another dimension? Then it hit me. What if it’s someone’s mindscape? We’ve seen what Vecna’s mind looks like and the Upside Down seems like it could be something similar. Did El somehow banish Henry into someone’s mind? El’s powers, along with all the other lab kids, were always centered around contacting other people’s minds. Her power to open portals to other dimensions came out of nowhere and was definitely not taught to her by anyone at the lab. It makes sense for this power to have something to do with the mind since that’s what she was focused on.

Here’s the original Upside Down compared to Vecna’s mind lair. Looks similar, right? Floating objects, smoke/fog, rocky structures, bright storms ahead, and it seems to be endless. So let's dive in:

The Upside Down was originally yellow before it became blue. Yellow is Will’s representative color. This is what initially made me wonder if this is Will’s mindscape. So where are Will’s objects? We know Vecna has his house floating around to show that it’s his mind. Will would have been 8 years old when Vecna was banished. Maybe the Upside Down had little to no structure because his brain wasn’t as developed yet? As Will got older, it started to look like Hawkins and changed colors.

Will does have a few monsters in his mindscape that we see ignore Vecna’s presence. I think these monsters could be representations of Will’s trauma. Lonnie was abusive and Will dealt with a lot of bullies so the demogorgons could be a physical manifestation of trauma. Vecna displays his victims on the pillars in his mind. Maybe the monsters are fictional creatures Will has defeated during DnD campaigns? He is a very creative kid so his mind might be filled with fictional monsters. I think the trauma manifestation is more likely, though. 

Music also opened a gate to the Upside Down! Right when Joyce started to play Should I Stay or Should I Go, a gate opened in the wall and then it started to close when she turned the music off. A song with significant meaning to Will opened a gate. They figured out music would save Max because it can reach parts of the brain that words can’t, so how did music open a gate to the Upside Down? It’s Will’s mind.

Obviously, the gates we see inside of the confirmed mindscapes look very different from the Upside Down gates. When El opened a gate into Will’s mind, she somehow made it a physical location. This could be the reason why the gates look different. Will’s gate looks more fleshy, almost like the edge of a brain? 

We also see what Max’s mind looks like before she steps into Vecna’s mind. It’s blue and foggy with fuzzy edges. When the Mind Flayer is taking over Will’s mind, he seems to be transported back into the Upside Down. These visions are very similar to Vecna visions, so shouldn’t Will’s surroundings just turn blue and foggy like they did for Max? Why does his mind have vines, spores, and creatures, just like the Upside Down? Is Vecna just taunting Will with his traumatic memories or is this what Will’s mind looks like? 

Mike asks if Will’s visions of the Upside Down are real or if they’re in his head and Will isn’t sure. When Max was in a trance, she couldn’t tell what was real or not until she saw the music gate. Why is he confusing fake and real in the same way Max does? Is the Upside Down all in Will’s head in a literal sense?

When Vecna enters someone’s mind, a red storm appears. Notice how the storm is a combination between blue and red. It seems like Billy’s mind was also blue before he was flayed. So both Max and Billy have blue mindscapes. The Upside Down is currently blue. We know that the storm is red because Vecna’s mindscape is combining with the mind he is currently in. Why is Vecna’s mind storm appearing inside the Upside Down if his mind isn’t combining with someone else’s? 

Vecna also brings spores with him when he enters someone’s mind. Max’s Snow Ball memory starts to fill with spores when Vecna finds her. When Max changes her mindscape to look like her Snow Ball memory, she leaves a decorative table in her other memories. It’s a piece of her current mindscape. This table has a similar function to the spores but Vecna’s mindscape doesn’t have spores in it. Why is Vecna bringing characteristics of the Upside Down with him when he goes into her mind? If the spores are just there because that’s where Vecna’s real body is, wouldn’t Max leave behind traces of her physical body’s location too? She would have pieces of the Creel attic in her mind if this were the case. Vecna is bringing spores with him because his mind is combining with Will’s mind the same way he’s combining with Max’s. His real body is in someone else’s mind and he is bringing pieces of it with him, just like Max’s table. 

The Upside Down being Will’s mindscape would explain why it’s stuck on the day he went missing. Will’s mind is stuck because of the trauma he endured. When Will talks about that trauma, he says he felt frozen in fear. His fight or flight response is freeze (for the most part). The Upside down is frozen in time and it’s cold! Did Will freeze his own mind as a stress response? He hasn’t moved past that trauma and neither has his mindscape. 

Vecna’s mind also seems to be stuck in his house. There are just pieces of his house left like it’s been breaking and rotting away. Maybe the same is happening with the Upside Down. It looks like Hawkins for the same reason Vecna’s mind looks like his house, Hawkins is significant to Will’s development as a person. I think when Will entered his own mind, he did something similar to what Max did with the Snow Ball. He transformed it to look like his home because he was trying to hide in the light. Vecna started rotting Will’s mind the same way he did Max’s so he could hunt him. 

This also explains why Will can still feel Vecna even though the Mind Flayer was removed from his body. Vecna is still inside his mind! Max said that she felt “marked” by Vecna because he was still lingering around her mind. Will’s Vecna sense is much stronger than what Max describes because he has been physically marked by him. 

Could this partially be why Will survived in the Upside Down for so long as well? Everyone else was attacked upon arrival. If it’s Will’s own mind, he could navigate it better and find places to hide. Vecna probably targeted Will because of this as well, he wanted to meet the owner of the mind he’s in. But he didn’t kill him like he did everyone else. Vecna likes it there and he couldn’t kill Will without his perfect world being destroyed. This is why he was planning on killing everyone but Will in season two! He wanted to take over Will’s mind so the Upside Down would belong to him instead. 

There are some inconsistencies with this theory, though. Why doesn’t Will feel Vecna when he’s in California? Why does distance have an impact on how Will feels his own mind? Maybe this has something to do with birthdaygate. As Will gets further from his own mind and memories, he forgets pieces of himself and other people begin to forget as well. Speaking of birthdaygate, the Upside Down being Will’s mind also explains my theory about the gates destroying Will’s memories. He’s forgetting his own memories. 

The distance thing also gives a reason as to why the Russian gate only worked when they were in Hawkins. They needed to be near Will for it to work. In fact, Will was just above them when they finally got the gate open.

I’m not even fully confident about this theory myself, but it would explain a lot of things! In terms of what the Upside Down represents, this also supports it representing homophobia (here). Will has a lot of internalized homophobia so his mind would reflect that. Anyways, the Upside Down is visually similar to the mindscapes and even behaves similarly. I believe the differences (vine gates, regular people can enter, etc) are due to El somehow making Will’s mind a physical location.

Part two

The Upside Down is Will's Mind Part Two

I highly recommend reading the first part of this theory (here) before continuing! This post is way longer than the original because I wanted to get all of my thoughts about this out in one place so here it is:

Dustin explains that El opened the Mothergate in 1983 by making a psychic connection to the demogorgan and assumes that Vecna is doing the same with his victims. Why would psychic connection open a gate to the Upside Down if the UD is not related to the mind? If gates to the UD are being opened through psychic connection, how did the original gate in 1979 open? El was not psychically contacting anyone when she originally banished Vecna, or was she? 

Right before El banishes Vecna, she sees a cloudy red tunnel and a memory of her birth. This initially seems like El about to meet death, but what if it was actually a lifeline? The red cloudy tunnel looks similar to Vecna’s cloudy mindscape when he’s searching for victims. What if El was unknowingly searching for someone’s mind, found Will’s, and banished Vecna there? This would explain how she recognized him in s1 as well, she might have seen him in the red void or could sense him because she has connected with his mind before.

Now I want to answer the question of why El banished Vecna to Will’s mind specifically. This needs a bit of explaining before I get to the point so stay with me: 

We know that Vecna likes to target people with trauma because their minds are more vulnerable when they’re experiencing trauma. We can assume that El’s powers work the same. Maybe Will had experienced a recent trauma that made his mind more vulnerable that day and gave El an easy (unintentional) target. But what trauma could that be?

In s1, Hopper says that he had been chief in Hawkins for four years, meaning that Hopper became chief in 1979. When Jonathan speaks to Lonnie, Lonnie asks if Hopper is still chief. This means that Lonnie was still in Hawkins in 1979. So when did Lonnie leave? We can deduce it was sometime between 1979 and 1982. Joyce brings Will tickets to Poltergeist while he is sitting in Castle Byers. Poltergeist came out in June of 1982 so this must have happened around that time. Jonathan and Will built Castle Byers the night their dad left so if Castle Byers already exists, we know this happened before 1982. So Lonnie left before 1982, but after 1979.

Onto my point, I believe that Lonnie left the same day that Vecna was banished to the Upside Down aka September 8th, 1979. This would be a fresh trauma that made Will’s mind more vulnerable to El’s powers. Jonathan and Will built Castle Byers the night their dad left and Jonathan said they were sick for a week after they built it. What if Will’s sickness wasn’t because of rain, but because his mind was being haunted by Vecna? Headaches, nosebleeds, and trouble sleeping sound like they could be symptoms of a typical cold, right? They describe Will’s connection to the Mind Flayer as a “virus” in s2 as well. 

In the shed scene, Joyce’s memory is about Will’s 8th birthday. Will turned 8 in 1979. Hopper said he became chief in 1979 in the scene where Joyce is reporting Will missing and he uses that as a reason why Will is likely with Lonnie. Lonnie is linked to 1979 and Will’s disappearance now. That year is significant to Will. These two scenes indicate that Vecna being banished to the UD is connected to Will’s disappearance and is the reason why he was targeted. Why is there emphasis surrounding Will in 1979? Did something happen to him that year that was significant, maybe his mind being invaded by someone? 

The destruction of Castle Byers has similarities to the night they built it. It was raining both nights and Will had trouble destroying Castle Byers the same way he struggled to hammer it together. How does the Castle Byers scene end? Will feels the Mind Flayer. So what if the parallels don’t end with the rain, what if Will felt Vecna wandering his mind the night they built it too? 

Another thing that felt important: the van scene where Will talks about being different comes just before the scene of Brenner looking at the cracks in the wall left from El banishing Vecna. The song “Being Different” slightly fades us into that scene. Are they connecting Will’s differences to the day Vecna was banished?

Okay so why doesn’t Will feel Vecna for the next four years then? Will said that he doesn’t always feel the Mind Flayer, he only felt it when it wanted to use him. Vecna was dormant until the gate opened again and only made his presence known when he wanted to. 

After season four, we are meant to assume that Will’s visions in season two were just Vecna visions, not him actually being transported into the Upside Down. They describe these visions as “true sight” and I think they were right! Will really was seeing into the Upside Down. That’s not the full story, though. Will’s visions were just Vecna visions, but he was also being transported into the Upside Down because that is his mind. 

Will heard a baby demogorgan during one of his visions on Halloween. Why would Vecna make him hear a baby demogorgan rummaging through trash if the main point of the vision was to scare him with the Mind Flayer? Why not use the classic clock sound insead? Will was hearing actual creatures from the Upside Down during his visions because they reside in his mind. 

The analogy they use in season two to describe Will’s condition is the story of Phineas Gage. It’s interesting how they compared Will’s mental hauntings to a physical injury. Phineas Gage had a rod go through his head that caused personality changes but Will’s personality changes were mostly due to PTSD and the Mind Flayer taking over his mind. 

When the doctors scan Will’s brain, there are abnormalities that they can see and they specifically point out abnormalities in the hippocampus caused by PTSD. PTSD can cause physical changes to the brain like making the hippocampus smaller. Will’s brain has physical changes due to PTSD, but maybe he has physical damage to his brain in a different way. Maybe his mind is a physical location that is actively being harmed by Vecna. Maybe these comparisons to Phineas Gage are being made because they both had physical injuries to the brain, but Will’s brain is really the Upside Down. Max says that closing the gate is like cutting off the brain from the body. The UD is a brain!

On the topic of Will’s PTSD, let’s talk about the anniversary effect. Owens says that Will’s visions are worse because he is approaching the anniversary of his disappearance. At the same time as the approaching anniversary, the lab is losing control of the spread of the UD into the real world. Plants are suddenly rotting and tunnels are spreading despite them keeping it contained for nearly a year. Why is the UD’s spread speeding up as they near the anniversary? Maybe Owens was right, but not in the way he thought. Will’s PTSD response is becoming worse because of the anniversary and this is causing the UD aka his mind to spread into Hawkins faster. His mind is more vulnerable and Vecna can take over easier and enact his plans. 

Will says that the more the vines spread, the more connected he feels to the Mind Flayer. Why does the UD spreading into the real world make Will feel him more? This isn’t just Vecna taking over Will’s mind, Will puts an emphasis on the UD’s spread into Hawkins. It could be that Will’s mind is seeping into Hawkins so he feels more connected to the UD and Vecna because of that. His mind doesn’t feel as distant as before. 

They also describe Will as the “host” for the virus aka Vecna. The lab people talk about the tunnels/gates as if they are diseases as well. What if Will is a host in a bigger way? What if he isn’t just the host for Vecna, but the entire UD? He’s a host for both. 

Why didn’t Will die in s2 when they closed the gate? Obviously they got the particles out of him, but we later learn that he can still feel Vecna so his connection was not entirely broken even though it should have been. The creatures from the UD die when the gate closes because they are cutting the brain from the body, the brain being the Vecna. So if Will is still connected to Vecna, why didn’t he die and why does he still feel Vecna? His connection to Vecna was not fully severed because the UD aka Will’s mind is still a host for him.

Another thing: Will didn’t feel pain from the UD being burned. If it’s his mind, that would hurt right? I don’t think so. Vecna took control of everything in the UD so they belong to his mind rather than Will’s, taking the pain away from Will and attaching it to Vecna. 

It’s interesting how we don’t get a memory sequence during the shed scene. Both Billy and Max had memory flashbacks when they were breaking free from Vecna taking over their minds, so why not Will? They could have shown a swingset, a picture of Will’s spaceship drawing, or a clip of Castle Byers, but they didn’t. We didn’t get to see inside of Will’s mind at all. Do they not want us to see his mind? Perhaps it would be something familiar, something they want to wait to reveal until a later season. 

Speaking of memories, we know that memories can help someone escape their own mind. We didn’t get a visual of Will’s memories in s2, but we did in s1. We get three flashbacks. Will and Joyce in Castle Byers, Jonathan and Will listening to The Clash, and one of Will drawing. These memories have key details that relate to the memories used in s2! Castle Byers, drawing, and Should I Stay or Should I Go. These all save Will in s2 and they may have helped him in s1 as well! Maybe Will used the same memories to make connections from his mind to the real world.

Why does the Upside Down look so different now than it did when Vecna first entered it? I originally theorized that this is because Will’s brain was less developed so his mind looked different at the time, but now I have a new theory. What if Will’s mind is stuck in a Vecna vision? If so, what is Vecna taunting Will with in this vision?

The description of the Upside Down is a place of death and decay. Will’s most prevalent trauma before he was taken by Vecna was the abuse and the bullying he faced for being a visibly gay kid. A lot of the bullying was likely about how Will would one day contract HIV/AIDs. We know Troy had implied this once in s1 and that probably wasn’t the only time. Does Will’s mind look like a place of death and illness because Vecna was taunting his fear of AIDs? Hawkins rotting with vines that carry disease with deadly spores in the air is very on the nose. Vecna was taunting Will with the idea that he will spread disease to the entire town of Hawkins just because he’s gay.

When Max made her mind look like the Snow Ball, there were no people there. The Upside Down is the same way, they even emphasize this fact multiple times throughout the show. It’s just like Hawkins but with no people. Maybe Will tried to hide in a happy memory the same way Max did, transforming the Upside Down to look like Hawkins, and Vecna immediately countered this just like he did to Max. As I said in part one, Will’s fight or flight response is often freeze so he might have frozen his own mind as a stress response, capturing the Vecna vision in time. Max tried to escape her tainted Snow Ball memory but couldn’t because Vecna interfered. Either Will froze his mind himself or Vecna prevented him from switching to a happier memory.

When Vecna realized he could reach into other’s minds, he said he became an explorer. He used this power to go inside of his parent’s minds and see them for who they are. He used the same wording of becoming an explorer when he entered the UD. The reuse of this phrase is connecting minds with the UD! He is an explorer for the same reason!

Something about the UD that I thought competed with my evidence is that voices from the real world can be heard there. I originally couldn’t explain this until I realized that Max heard voices inside her mind and so did El! The second Max’s music gate opened, she could hear the boys calling for her. El can hear people talking to her when she is in the void as well. The voices are faint and distant in both El and Max’s mind, just like they are in the UD! 

Will’s disappearance has a ridiculous amount of parallels with Vecna’s victims (that will be an entirely different post in the future). Why have Will’s disappearance parallel instances of the mind being targeted where gates open to the UD because of a psychic connection? Will’s mind wasn’t involved or targeted in s1… unless?

This next bit is a bit of a reach and honestly feels unrelated but I’m leaving it anyways:

It’s interesting how the UD messes with electricity when that is a feature of someone using powers as well. The UD functions very similarly to mind powers. For example, in s2, Terry flickered the lights to lead El to her and signal that she wanted to talk. Will did the same things with the lights from the UD. Was Will controlling the lights with his mind by touching them within his mind? 

When El connected Will’s mind to the radio, it blew up. The same thing happened when Will used the phone from the UD. If El using her mind made the radio blew up, then maybe Will using his mind made the phone blow up. Will is “using his mind” by simply using the things in the UD because they are inside of his mind. 

Both Vecna and El are shown to cool themselves down when they are about to use their powers. El opens freezers to focus on finding Dustin in s3 and Vecna “likes it cold” because it’s easier to use powers that way. Maybe they need to be cold to use their powers because the mind is cold? A staple of the UD is that it’s cold!

Joyce gets a vision of Will and says that she can feel him. Is this in the same way that Billy, Will, and Mike could sense El when she contacted them through the void? Was Will contacting Joyce through his mind? Once Will stops trying to get to Joyce after breaking a hole in the wall, Joyce says she can’t feel him anymore. Was Will’s mind being cut off from Joyce’s because he couldn’t open a gate again from lack of energy? Henry and El both went into comas after they used too much of their powers. Will was slipping in and out of consciousness in Castle Byers shortly after this. Maybe he used too much energy trying to open the gate.

More of the UD functioning the same way that powers do:

At this point, I feel like I’m proving that Will has powers rather than the UD being his mind. Basically, Will was using his mind to communicate with Joyce, but not by holding out his hand and getting nose bleeds, he was touching things within his mindscape! He was using his mind, but in a different way because it’s a physical location now.

And now I’m going to end this post here. A lot of the evidence I brought up feels like a reach (and trust me, there were many more reaches I did not include) but here’s a repeat of the strongest evidence: music opened two gates to the UD, Will was actually being transported into the UD during his Vecna visions, psychic connection opens gates to the UD, and Vecna’s mind storm is inside the UD. It all comes back to Will and this would be a perfect way to wrap up the many questions about Will’s significance to Vecna.

As for how this could impact the ending of the show, I am a firm believer that the UD needs to be freed, not defeated. If it truly is Will’s mind, that’s a great way to show Will breaking free from that trauma by literally taking away Vecna’s control. Maybe Will can even take back some of the creatures and get them on his side like Dustin did with Dart, allowing them to take part in the defeat of their own abuser. Will is going to free his mind from Vecna’s abuse.

for so long I was really against Will having powers because it felt sort of. unnecessary. to the story and to his character. because we’ve only ever seen “powers” displayed as something akin to a tool or a weapon. they’re something to wield

but that doesn’t make sense to me in the context of Will. like, he’s nonviolent by nature, more or less a total pacifist, to the point that even in that very first dnd session, he waffles between casting protection and casting fireball, only to cast fireball and… get “got” by the demogorgon. even in pretend, he doesn’t succeed at using a weapon

but when I began looking at it from the angle of “well maybe his powers aren’t the same as the ones we’ve been shown” it really opened it up a lot more for me. I talked about my winding incoherent thoughts on it in this post, but it’s just like

something about his character being so full of love despite everything he’s been through. continuously using his kindness even when cornered and scared. simply trying to face his fears and stand up for himself re: the Mind Flayer rather than trying to physically beat it back. and how the core of the solution to the conflict is not to fight violence with violence, but to see the violence as the pained, fearful lashing out that it is and meet it with only understanding and compassion…

and all of that just made me go “well wouldn't it be poetic if he didn’t have powers and simply beat vecna with the power of love?” but there is way too much evidence that points toward him having powers (looking at you @pinkeoni with this post)

so it’s like. okay. how do I contextualize all of these feelings inside the evidence that he does have powers? and it’s like. well of course! he doesn’t have powers, he is the power. it’s not something he wields, it’s something that is inherent to him and something he extends to others with open palms much like his love and kindness. i think it was even Robin again who said that his name is even Will, so he “wills” things into being and he “wills” love onto people. more like it's a desire, or a wish, than anything he directly points and controls

okayyyy so i made a post abt this last night that was just a short ramble trying to piece my thoughts together but basically... i’m just really curious how will’s (possible) powers might manifest and what they might be, and i’m trying to like. reason out how i feel about them and what i personally think would be cool or fitting...

lots of people have talked about this before (like user pinkeoni has made some really good posts abt it, and i think heroesbyler has had good discussions abt it too) and what his powers might be, and a lot of them revolve around creation or light, both of which i’m very fond of

this isn't so much a theory or prediction as it is a "these are things i noticed and i think this would work well with the themes of the show" type of spiel. it ended up way longer than i wanted it to and goes off on multiple tangents because i can't stop myself, so i'm putting it under the cut lol

it's more just for me to try and articulate what i'm feeling about it, but if anyone actually reads this mess, you're more than welcome to share your thoughts :3

with the creation stuff, it automatically makes me think of the UD taking the shape of hawkins... because we know that henward grew to hate that town so why would vecna shape the UD to look like the place he hated? i suppose it could be bc he wanted to take revenge on the town, so why not daydream about it and destroy your scale model of it to get some catharsis, right? but... then it's frozen on the night will went missing? it’s possible that the UD could have simply taken the shape of hawkins when the s1 gate was opened and made the two worlds touch, thus making the UD a true "mirror" dimension of hawkins. but i also really like the idea of will getting sucked into the UD, panicking, wishing he had his hiding places to go to to escape from this monster chasing him, and poof! now he's in hawkins and all of his hiding places are there (he's good at hiding!) but it's still the "wrong" hawkins

but anyway, i want to move on to the "light" angle because there's so many things that i love about the possibility of will's powers taking the form of some kind of light to counteract the darkness created by vecna and the UD ("hide in the light" thank u max)

i especially think it would be cool for it to take the shape of some kind of fire or flame, even if the powers themselves don't behave like fire, like it's just a stylization choice to give some sort of visual that the characters and audience can see

i don't recall if there's any specific moment where any version of henward/vecna/001 or other characters talk about burning or fire as a form of destruction in a metaphorical/symbolic sense, but we see it enough of it literally throughout the show. fire is a means of causing pain, of killing, of destroying

season 1, nancy and jonathan think to burn the demogorgon to a crisp because, hey, that'd be a pretty effective way to kill something, right? so they carry that theory over into all the other seasons

season 2, we see hopper using his lighter to maneuver through the tunnels below hawkins, and the vines flinch away from the flame. we see owens and the lab using fire to cull the "weeds" still growing out of the gate. we see will react physically to the burning, feeling the pain through the link with the hivemind, and requiring it to be cold in order to not be in physical agony

season 3, uuuh i can't remember any direct usage of fire against the fleshflayer other than the fireworks, but that's more about the explosions than the flames imo lol. but we do get the sauna test (best s3 episode hands down mwah love it) and the aversion to heat that we see in billy and also in heather, though less prominently

season 4, we get murray's killer flamethrower scene and hopper using the flaming spear to keep the demogorgon at bay. our hawkins crew relies heavily on use of fire (flambé) in order to take out vecna's physical body

so there's just a lot of fire and fire as a means of destruction. but i can't help also thinking about how fire isn't purely a means of harm. fire keeps us warm, it brings us light in the darkness, it cooks our food and brings us health. the sun, a giant ball of fire, is essential for life to exist on earth. i especially keep thinking about how wildfires are a necessity to the planet, and in places like healthy grassland ecosystems, fires are crucial to burn out old growth to make way for new, fresh green, which the animals there then rely on. letting old growth continue to sit and dry out and die isn't good. it has to be removed completely so that new grass shoots can take over

(not to mention that allowing for controlled burns and letting wildfires run their course in a regular system ultimately allows for fewer, less destructive wildfires to happen. if there's no old, dry growth to burn, then there's less stuff to catch on fire)

how does this tie into the show, though?

to me, it makes me think of the concept of simply living with your trauma, not talking about it, and pretending everything is fine, when all that's doing is creating more kindling for a bigger, more destructive fire. it makes me think of season 2 and the conversation will has with jonathan about how everyone keeps treating him like he's gonna break, and the instructions joyce and hopper got from owens to just "treat him how you normally would." you can ignore trauma all you want and pretend everything is fine, but it's going to be more destructive in the long run. instead, letting him talk about it, listening, letting him burn things down a little bit, will be healthier because it'll clear out that old, dry grass clogging everything up and leave a clean patch of earth for him to build back up with new, healthier growth. you can take a weed wacker to it all you want, but those old roots are still there

not to mention the way they get rid of the mind flayer is to "burn it out of him." they literally let the "fire" run rampant, cranking up the heat to make his body inhabitable to the mind flayer, clearing out those nasty "weeds" so will can grow on his own (more or less) unimpeded

and then there's the s1 flashback scene between will and joyce where he's drawing will the wise shooting green fireballs. joyce asks, "why does he need fireballs if he's so wise? can't he just outsmart the bad guys?" but will explains that sometimes the bad guys are smart too, so he needs the fireballs

only here, they're green because he doesn't have a red crayon. this specific tidbit makes me think of how will's powers are currently repressed in some way. at that time, it was possibly because his powers "hadn't come in" yet, if we want to follow the idea that powers are a symbol for puberty or coming of age

he hasn't "found his flame" yet, so to speak (which is what got me thinking about all of this at all last night bc of the song 'find your flame' from the sonic frontiers ost the absolute slapper that it is) and at this point it's obvious that any awakening of his powers will happen in s5 when he's no longer being suppressed, much like how he currently has to suppress his true feelings, or how he's been unable to move on from what happened to him in s1 and 2

he has to use "fireballs" because sometimes the bad guy is smart. sometimes the bad guy has a trick up his sleeve (like *checks notes* literally not being able to die) and your original plan won't work. you can stock up on weapons, you can create as many sneaky ambushes as you want, you can solve all of the bad guy's riddles, but sometimes you need the fireballs

and, once again, we come back to how i feel like will's powers won't be literal fireballs, or something he physically wields. when it comes to el, henward, and kali, as well as the other powers that we see from other subjects, it's all something that they do. and here's where i start to struggle with how i want to articulate what i think about will's powers...

to me, will's possible powers aren't a weapon in the way that we've seen other powers used, or at least framed as, a weapon

like... i guess i do think that it's something that he can "do," but it's less "i'm going to move this thing with my mind" "i'm going to go into your head and walk through your memories" "i'm going to make you see something that isn't really there." like, he himself, his person, his mind, his essence, his intent, is the power. will byers is the light. why else constantly bask him in rays of sunshine, hm?? lol

again, i want to touch on the possibility of the UD hawkins manifesting simply because he wanted it to. he didn't think about it, he didn't deliberately go like "okay and now this house is here and this place is there" it simply... was. it just happened without much of his input other than a vague wish and panic

if we want to make it into something more deliberate, it makes me think of lio fotia in promare. the movie is basically about this group of people who suddenly developed "burnish" abilities, where they contain fire and have some sort of fire powers. they're persecuted by the rest of the planet, and are treated as terrorists and locked away in prisons and experimented upon. the fire, or "promare," inside of them is a double-edged sword, where they supposedly rejuvenate their bodies, but if they don't let it burn, it instead kills them and they turn to ash. spoilers i guess (you should definitely go watch this movie i highly recommend it), but near the end of the movie, lio is taken captive by the antagonist, kray foresight, and our other main chara galo thymos tries to save lio. kray lashes out using his burnish powers and tries to burn galo, but lio launches his own flames toward galo to protect him. when galo's firefighting team finds him, he's on fire, but he doesn't notice because the fire doesn't hurt him. it's a special kind of flame that doesn't burn! in the end, in order to save the world, they have to let it fully burn one last time, and galo and lio work together to wrap the entire earth in a massive wave of fire, and it's fire that takes the form of water. it engulfs everyone, but everyone realizes that it doesn't actually burn

i'm getting off topic but !! now we start getting less into "will has fire powers" and more "his powers are light and warmth" instead. like lio and galo's combined powers and intent (that's the other thing, that final big burn is different than the rest because of the intent behind it), it's not actually about the fire, it's about its purpose

he needs the fireballs to fight the bad guys, but in the case of our "bad guy," literal fireballs don't work. henward's past is a complicated one, and a lot of where he's been led was caused by his lack of a proper support system. he was villainized for being different. even when he was found by someone who "cared" for him, it was for that man's own personal gain, not because he actually cared about henward

henward was only ever burned and then left in the cold. nobody gave him a second chance like el, nobody listened to him like will. he was forced to fend for himself on his own in the darkness. he came to rely on the darkness. vecna literally focuses on the darkest thoughts of his victims in order to gain enough power to open gates. and sure, focusing on negative emotions gives all of our characters with powers some burst of strength

but then we're shown that love is what makes them even stronger. focusing on happy memories, memories of friends and loved ones, memories of the love itself, is what allows el to overpower 001 in the lab and to close the gate in s2 and to break billy out of his tether to the fleshflayer. and even in that final showdown in s3, she's not using her powers. she's burned out. in that moment, it's not the powers themselves that save them, it's the message behind it

will's whole character is about love and understanding. he puts himself last consistently, he puts the needs of others above himself, and he does not know how to be a little bit selfish when it comes to his feelings. he's sensitive, he's kind, he's artistic, he cries easy, he relies on his friends and family to feel safe and loved, and without them, he feels lost and hurt and alone. and there might be ups and downs, but he gets that love and support from them. they always have his back. he knows what it's like to feel pain and to suffer, but to have people who will stay by your side unconditionally through it all

and that's something he can offer to vecna and his alternate versions. he can offer that love, and that warmth, and that light in the darkness. and once again, i think it would be neat if it was less of a literal flame or source of light, and that it was will who is the source of light. like, he is the example for henward/vecna to see. he's the proof that despite all the bad shit there is in the world, there are people who will still love you anyway. there's people who will listen to you and care for you even if everyone else shuts you out

and even if it does take the form of something literal, of an actual flame or glowing ball of light or more of those glowy particles, it's not a weapon like the other powers we've seen

it's also about just shining a light on all the good stuff that's mixed in with the bad stuff. again, there is no black and white (thanks brenner, you fuck). henward was miserable in his life, he hated it and was frustrated that he felt trapped in a cage, and he only saw all the bad in the world. he couldn't see any of the good mixed in (ie. the possibility that he was friends with scott clarke as a kid, or even the fact that victor was really so caring and loved his son so much) because he just assumed it was all bad and he'd have to start from scratch to get any of the good he wanted

even focusing on the negative thoughts and feelings of his victims, vecna was able to be evaded by thinking of happy memories that took place at the same time as the bad ones. "hide in the light." again and again, we see max use memories, both past and present, to free herself from his clutches. good memories that still exist alongside the bad ones. and if vecna acknowledges that there's still good mixed in among the bad, his whole source of power, the foundation for his plan, completely crumbles

if will's power has to do with light, then he'll be the one to shine the light on all of the good memories that henward had mixed in among the bad. and this isn't to victim blame this 12 year old boy who was miserable and didn't know what else to do, but it's instead about his lack of support system, and how it's understandable to have grown so jaded, but that doesn't mean everything is bad, and there's still a chance for him to come back from it and change his way of thinking

henward was a wildfire waiting to happen, and rather than having someone to let him burn a little, to let out his anger and listen, he was trimmed back and suppressed. he had his old growth left there to dry out, which only added more kindling. he was never given the room to bring in new growth

and then to really tie in the use of fire to match the theme of "no black and white," i think about avatar the last airbender, and specifically the sun warrior temple that aang and zuko visit in the final book. in book 1 of atla, aang tries to learn firebending and jumps in too quickly, ends up burning katara's hands, and swears off ever learning firebending because he doesn't want to hurt anyone with it. in book 3, zuko offers to teach him, but aang is still very timid about it because of that incident in book 1. zuko also finds his firebending ability diminishing, and they surmise that it's because he no longer has this drive to find and capture the avatar. that was his source of power, his purpose, and now that it's no longer his purpose, he has to find the true way to master firebending. so, the two boys travel to the sun warrior temple to try to find answers. there, both zuko and aang admit that they really only see fire as something destructive, but the sun warriors remind them that fire is warmth and light and life. fire can be destructive, but it is not only destructive. it's something beautiful and necessary, you just have to respect it

feels pretty fitting for stranger things, yeah?

so, to wrap this all up before i go fucking crazy:

i personally think that will's powers will predominantly take the form of fire or light

i do also still adhere to some of the creation power theories, but it also wouldn't be crazy for him to have more than one power, right? after all, el can use telekinesis, track someone's physical location, and go into their minds. that's 3 pretty different things that she can do!

will is directly tied to the behavior of the lights in s1 and called back to in s4. throughout the show, and especially in s4, will is basked in sunshine on multiple occasions. sure, those instances are mostly about his bond to mike, and how mike sees him in this halo of light all the time...

but that still ties into the theme of love. those rays of light are about mike's love for will, and vice versa. but that kind of unconditional love and acceptance is something that will have to be extended to henward and vecna. therefore: light is the key

and again, it just feels very fitting to have the key be something like fire. something that's so often villainized and only seen as bad and destructive, when it truly is something that's misunderstood. unchecked, it can run rampant and cause pain and grief, but when respected, it can bring life and healing, for lack of a better word

so far, we've only seen fire used as a means of harm. it does keep our characters safe (ie. hopper's flaming spear, the flame thrower, the moltovs, etc.) but it is wielded as a weapon first, when it doesn't have to be

fire can cause pain, yes, but fire is also passion and love. light is something to be extended, to help people find their way out of the darkness, and i just think it would be really cool to see vecna, who's always shrouded in darkness, or henward who hid away in the dark attic surrounded by candles, to have a ray of warm sunshine like will byers hold out a hand to him and try to help

The three main responses to threats: fight (Eleven obviously), flight (Will who runs away), and freeze (Mike??).

You also have Mike who is constantly late at the start of each season.

I don’t believe Mike has powers of his own because there’s not enough foreshadowing I’ve seen to believe in that. But it’s possible to me that because their bond is so strong (just like Joyce and Will’s which allowed him to appear to her), Will was the conduit to Mike’s feelings and that caused time to stop.

I have a lot of thoughts about the whole “Will’s superpower is his heart” comment and the whole idea on Will being associated with electricity. Then electricity being associated with emotion in the show. Will’s ’heart’ may be a conduit that is powered by others’ connection to him. His powers work due to others’ feelings and intentions.

They've really put yellow, blue and red for Will, Mike and El, right?

"The 'Stranger Things' pilot originally included a nose bleed for Will.

On June 27, a Twitter user shared snippets of their copy of the original Stranger Things pilot script.

When it came time for the scene when Will was about to be captured and taken to the Upside Down, his nose and ears were supposed to start bleeding: "Will doesn't fire. He just stares. Paralyzed by fear. The hairs on his arms stand up again. His earns begin to drop blood. And then his nose. He fights tears.""

WAS NO ONE GOING TO TELL ME THIS?????

“No Longer Will”

After his experience in the Upside Down, Will is no longer completely Will.

In season two, Mr. Clarke gives a lesson on Phineus Gage who, after a freak accident where a pole went through his brain, became known as “No Longer Gage.” The focus is on Will during this scene.

(I should mention that the camera rack focuses to Max during this scene. What that implies for Max I’m not sure. Possible foreshadowing of being taken by Vecna and becoming “No Longer Max?”)

This is used as a metaphor for how Will’s life forever changed once he came back. His trauma transformed him. He can never go back to the Will he was before.

Will continues to be associated with imagery of rods splitting him in half.

But this is also a show that often explores mental illness and trauma through the lens of the supernatural, so I have a hunch that there might be a more literal interpretation than just that.

We learn from season four that with everyone Vecna kills, he takes everything from them. He keeps their souls in his mind.

This is why El can’t find Max in her mind. Because she momentarily died, her soul is in Vecna’s mind.

Will also died in the Upside Down. And Vecna killed him.

BUT he was brought back to life.

But so was Max, and yet her entire soul is gone while Will’s still seems to be intact.

UNLESS, Will’s entire soul actually is not there, only half of it is. He is “No Longer Will.”

(Maybe this only works with psychic deaths, BUT Vecna did kill him using the hivemind that he is psychically linked to)

We know that Vecna and Will have some sort of connection, but is isn’t made totally clear what exactly that connection is. Pieces of the Mind Flayer still stuck inside Will? Perhaps. But maybe this is the reason why, kinda like a reverse Horcrux. It’s not Vecna who has attached a part of himself to Will, but Will who has a part of him attached to Vecna. Maybe whenever he senses Vecna nearby, he is actually sensing that bit of him thats stuck inside?

Maybe this is his NINA, maybe this part of him has his memories of the Upside Down. Maybe this part of him remembers something else that Will does not. Maybe this part of him possesses power that Will currently does not have.

Maybe this is what his coming of age is about, finding that part of him that was lost in the Upside Down so that he can become whole.

Will Byers' Coming of Age Horror Story

Today I wanna predict Will's storyline in season 5 using horror genre tropes.

What's interesting about Will is that he often falls under tropes that are typically associated with female characters.

In season one he's the dead girl. He's Laura Palmer. He's the face of innocence that goes missing/dies and kicks off the story.

In season two, he's the possessed girl. He's Regan MacNeil. It's the irony of evil inside of the face of innocence.

Now, in season three he isn't given as much attention, so pinpointing what kind of trope he follows is hard to do. However, with season four we are given insight into what that trope is. Season four is a little different because he actually takes on a teen drama/romcom trope instead of a horror one. He's the girl next door, he's Joey Potter from Dawson’s Creek.

He's the childhood best friend who get's involved in the love triangle between the Main Guy and the Cool Girl. We see glimmers of this in season three, but it doesn't become especially clear that this is what they were going for until they lean into Will's feelings in season four.

So then, what does this mean for Will's arc moving forward? Will season five follow the pattern of female tropes? If so, which trope will they go with?

Some important information we are already given about season five is that this is going to be Will's coming of age. We've had this confirmed a few times by the Duffer Brothers.

Given the nature of the show, it wouldn't be out there to assume that his coming of age is going to be explored through a supernatural element. In fact, supernatural coming of age horrors are actually pretty common, especially female supernatural coming of horrors.

These types of films typically explore coming of age through some kind of supernatural and/or horrific element, usually in quite the gruesome and violent way. While these films will explore a broad spectrum of different subject matter regarding coming of age, sexuality and sexual awakening is usually a point of discussion. Sexuality and either supernatural and/or horror elements run adjacent to each other, and sex is typically associated with violence. IE lycanthropy in Ginger Snaps, cannibalism in Raw, demonic possession in Jennifer's Body, Nina’s transformation in Black Swan etc.

The reason for this is because female sexuality is usually demonized. It's seen as something as horrific and monstrous, and as such this trope is often associated with queerness. Films that follow this formula are typically seen as queer coded, or even include blatant queerness (see Jennifer's Body or Black Swan)

So now we have a character like Will, whose sexuality is already demonized in universe, going through his own coming of age narrative in a supernatural horror show.

What would be an effective and streamlined way to showcase coming of age and queerness in a way that also coincides with the nature of the show and even goes along with the lore?

I know that with the limited number of episodes, there comes the reasonable concern of being able to squeeze in so many different storylines and themes in such a short amount of time. I get it, it's my main problem with season 3. How are they going to find the time to adequately explore themes relating to Will's sexuality, while also having to wrap up all of the loose ends regarding the supernatural plot?

Easy, you do what the above examples did, and make Will's sexuality and his connection to the supernatural the same plot.

It's not like they would have to reinvent the story in order to do this, they've already been setting up clues for this exact storyline.

In season one, Will's rumors of Will's queerness is pretty widespread among the town, it's one of the suspected reasons for why he went missing. His queerness is already being correlated with supernatural from the very start.

As I've said before, coming of age horrors usually explore sexuality through of lens of something supernatural. It’s not that the supernatural plot takes the place of Will’s sexuality, but rather these two plotlines run together to aid each other, and the supernatural plot can express ideas relating to his sexuality in a more metaphorical way.

So then, how could Will’s burgeoning sexuality be explored in a supernatural way, that fits within the universe of the show?

His powers

@therainscene already has a great post discussing how Will’s powers are his queerness, I reccomend reading it because they explain a lot of the same points that I’m going to but in a much better way than I ever could. Although I wanna point out this point they make at the end—

I would go as far to say that this is what the show bas been building toward the entire time. Think about how many elements of Will’s storyline matches up with both his sexuality AND powers:

Being taken in season one (the town believed it was because of his sexuality, when really Vecna could have taken him for his powers)

Bullied by his peers (being called Zombie Boy for his experience in the UD and other slurs for his sexuality)

Powers/sexuality being seen as mental illness (his true sight visions being misinterpreted as flashbacks)

Repression of both powers and sexuality

Castration (Soteria effectively being a conversion tactic for powers)

Stigmatization (the town sees both the supernatural and homosexuality as satanic)

And finally, acceptance (neither Will’s powers nor his sexuality are horrific, but a beautiful thing to be embraced)

Here’s what Will’s storyline looks like written out:

Will is initially targeted for his sexuality/powers (season one) and he is to be judged by his peers for his sexuality/supernatural experience, and his sexuality/powers are thought of to be a mental illness (season two). His sexuality/powers remain repressed (season three) until they are slowly revealed to the audience (season four) and he finally accepts and embraces his sexuality/powers in the end (season five).

If we follow a typical storyline from a coming of age horror along with what we know about the show, here’s my rough prediction for Will’s s5 arc:

Post time skip, Will is beginning to come into his sexuality more and more but it’s difficult given the external environment

Will has an awakening of powers emblematic of his sexual awakening

Owens + the government tries to “cure” Will of his powers by getting rid of them (I’m going to make a post in the future elaborating more on just this point)

In the beginning, the powers bring a lot of complications and strife (he would likely be targeted for having them, and may not like having them himself)

In the end though, Will comes to embrace the powers he was given as a wonderful, beautiful thing, and they are what helps save the day

Now, some may notice a discrepancy between Will’s storyline and the coming of age horrors I talked about prior, and that’s the idea that Will will have a much more positive end than the female protagonists I discussed. Although, the show has a much different tone and different message than the films above. While those films usually go for the tragic angle, I don’t think the show about uplifting outcasts and wierdos is going to end with the gay kid dying.

I also don’t think that the show is going to try to portray Will as a villain. I think it’s possible that other characters may see him as a villain, but once again, given the shows message, I don’t think the gay kid is going to turn evil. Like I said before, I think Will is going to learn that his powers are actually quite a beautiful thing, just like his sexuality, and learn to embrace it.

tagging: @downbytheriversside

posting this thing on tumblr lmao