stranger theories

I don't really like any of the theories about him being in the lab as a kid and repressing those memories because I like the idea of him being a random kid kind of thrust into power rather than being born with it. I'd like it if it was based on his whole hiding thing from S1 where he manifested the Upside Down into Hawkins and/or blipped himself there subconsciously to escape the demogorgon. I like the idea that it's an accidental coping mechanism more than a super power if that makes any sense. Him blipping himself to the Upside Down due to trauma could also relate to S2 and his PTSD, although I also like the idea that the blips were because of his mental link to Vecna (perhaps via tentacle).

In terms of a reveal of this, I imagine it would be Vecna in S5 trying to get Will to join him or at least mess him up mentally where he'd have some sort of "we're more alike than you think, William" reveal, showing that Will was actually holding a lot of repressed power inside of him. And then Vecna could give him a whole spiel like he did to young Eleven about society not being able to handle people who are different and powerful and how great he and Will could be together. We could see clips of the past with Henry and Will parallels, the mind flayer and Will saying the mind flayer wanted to kill everyone except for him before he was even flayed. Remember, they did say S5 is based off of a scrapped S2 concept and that Will was at the center of it.

However, after this reveal Will would instead reject Vecna because Will is not like Vecna. Vecna became bitter because of societal rejection but Will through his love (not just romantic) and kindness was able to accept himself regardless of what others thought and try to use his feelings for good. Would Vecna have given a crying girl his toy even though he couldn't afford a new one? Would he have made a painting for someone but lied about who commissioned it because he thought it would make them happy? No way. Because the parallels between Will and Vecna were not because they're alike; it's because Will is the opposite of Vecna. (@paladin-n-cleric has a brilliant post on that if I recall correctly).

At the end of the series, Will would help defeat Vecna but instead of destroying the Upside Down or himself, I like the idea that Will frees the Upside Down. The Upside Down being frozen in the past represents how Will is stuck in the past and in his childhood. However, instead of destroying the parts of himself he doesn't like such as his powers and his links to the Upside Down, he's able to reclaim them for good. I kind of like the idea of him being the peace keeper of the Upside Down but I also like the idea that after he comes out and/or uses his powers, the Upside Down becomes either the present or as it was before Will; an empty abyss where creatures are able to roam freely and separately from our world. I say and/or because this is could be a gay metaphor or a childhood trauma metaphor or both.

Don't know if this makes sense, thanks for the ask anon (:

Ok little life update for people: I am still working on the character analyses, but they take so long and get little clout so they're a low priority. I've been busy with school and exams and stuff like that, but I'm on holiday now so I hope to post a bit more frequently! Theory, ST5, Byler and Ronance asks would be appreciated! I'm working on a Will theory right now that I'll get out tonight at the latest, so thought I'd update you guys. Anyways, please send asks (:

I agree. I think she's going to have to be involved in S5 otherwise they wouldn't keep her alive which brings three possibilities; one, she is just asleep the whole season but wakes up at the end as a happy climactic scene. Maybe she'll go on the date with Lucas finally (: Two, she becomes a vessel for Vecna and as you said, the friends have to exorcise her or have to deal with her in some other way. That could be a good way to psychologically manipulate the gang. Maybe they'd even have to kill her, although I doubt they'd fake her death just to re-kill her. This could be foreshadowed by the lyrics to Master of Puppets, with lines such as:

Or possibly she could be used as a weapon because Vecna is unable to infiltrate her mind anymore. This is foreshadowed by Dustin saying only a zombie could defeat the mind flayer because they have no mind.

I feel like it will kind somewhere in between. I think Max will wake up at the start of the time skip but she won't remember anything. Her friends might even bring back the letters from S4 to try and wake her up. But unfortunately, nothing works. I think either once Vecna is dead, she'll get it all back. I wonder if there's a way to steal it from him and that weakening him enough for them to kill him, just like in Buffy when they steal Tara's consciousness from the villain, Gloria, and that makes her weak enough to kill her.

Maybe they won't steal her consciousness. Maybe because Max is still alive, if she remembers her friends, it automatically steals her consciousness from Vecna, weakening him and the mega gate enough for Eleven to close the gate and kill him. I don't know, I'm just throwing around possibilities.

Thanks for the ask (:

I feel like it was a mixture of the two. First of all, there's the argument that the Upside Down is a hive mind meaning Vecna probably would've been in control of the demogorgon in the first place. But there's little details that make me feel like it was Vecna directly without him using something to get in the way. For example, the lights flicker when the demogorgon is around but they get brighter when Vecna is around because Vecna is a human (Will made the lights brighter too) and when Will was taken the lights got brighter but they flickered when Barb was taken as far as I'm aware.

Although they flicker when Vecna uses his powers too, I think he uses his psychic powers before he took Will into the Upside Down. When Will is at Mike's house, the porch light flickers. This wouldn't be the demogorgon as it's way outside of its hunting range and also he doesn't tend to stalk his prey. The TV is also static-y, just like Max's pre Chrissy, the one at the diner pre Patrick and Victor's radio. Eleven uses static to infiltrate people's minds, so I believe at this point was when Vecna selected his target.

But then that raises the question of why? First of all, it could just have been a random kid. But Will has been targeted across all of the seasons, not to mention he brought the demo slug into our world, developed true sight and got mind flayed. I think Vecna selected him as a target possibly as a bit of projection. He selected Eleven before because I believe he saw her being persecuted for something she couldn't control and that she wasn't conforming as well, which is similar to what he experienced as a kid. Maybe when he saw Will getting bullied for not conforming to societal norms he thought he might want to join him? I mean mind flayed Will did say Vecna wanted everyone dead except for him. Perhaps after giving up on Eleven, he turned to Will and targeted him instead.

That's why instead of just being eaten, Will was found with a vine. Vecna knew he was going to get saved so planted the demo slug in him and decided Will would be his agent to blur the lines between Hawkins and the Upside Down. I also wonder if Will was actually going into the Upside Down as he didn't disappear in our world. Stuff that happens in Vecna visions clearly affects you in real life so maybe he got flayed in a manufactured vision and then real life by extension? He could clearly sense the Upside Down pre flaying and that to me seems very reminiscent of Max sensing that she was cursed by Vecna.

So those are some of my thoughts. Thanks for the ask, anon (: