disclaimer : I will present all of this as if I am extremely sure of what I am saying because I am making a demonstration, however this is a THEORY not certitude, I just think it’s super interesting and I hope it’s what’s happening in the show but this is just for fun, I am a

writer, I spent years of my life analyzing literature of course I think this is cool. also as this is just about season 3 not everything will make sense, I want to do a longer much more detailed thread about this theory in the context of the whole show but it will take me a lot

more time as it involves a myriad of other things to consider. also I am not disregarding Will’s importance to the supernatural plot or the fact he has powers (he most certainly does) this particular theory is just not about him.

We tend to consider the literal plot, the supernatural plot separate from the subtext, but in my opinion it isn’t, it feeds into the supernatural plot and informs it literally, stranger things i am convinced is a meta narrative, the show has a writer in universe, to follow the

dnd analogy, a DM in universe, and that DM is Mike.

We are experiencing the show through him, he controls the plot involuntarily and season 3 is by far the easiest season to see stranger things is a meta narrative, first it’s incredibly intricate, the set design is labyrinthine

the mall takes you from the well lit up filled with people mall to the underground with the Russian base, the tunnels of star court, the mirror maze, the steel work factory with its blue and yellow windows to the tunnels, the hidden, the place where consumption happens,

the sexual undertones completely voluntary, the top of the hill with cerebro as the place messages are heard. It almost feels unreal, it’s so bright, it’s so colorful, so lively, so unlike Hawkins and the song “Material girl” play as they wander the mall, almost like it’s made up

It’s very layered it’s definitely supposed to represent a consciousness and a subconsciousness. The whole season can be read through a post structuralist analysis where the shape, the set, informs and mimics the meaning, the core of the plot.

Something very interesting in season 3 is how the characters seem to have an awareness of fictionality, they are constantly at the edge of breaking the fourth wall, “it’s not a main concern, it’s just a sub concern” it’s not the main plot it’s just a subplot,

plot it’s just a subplot, Steve referring to himself in third person which Robin calls out, Suzie being made up, Mike making things up, Nancy’s article her wanting to finish the story (this is our story season 5 anyone?)

Season 3 also has multiple plot lines which start out separate and merge, the plot with the flayed, the Russian lab, the terminator chasing after hopper, Nancy and her article, the romantic drama, and when all the characters meet again they don’t understand what is happening,

they literally call the writers out! “who’s El?” “who’s Robin” “Russians what Russians?” “What are you talking about?” “Am i not speaking English?” they are essentially saying this plot is nonsensical wondering what the hell is happening?

But they gave you the key earlier in the season, when El says “emotions not logic” this plot makes sense emotionally but not logically. And that’s when you need to reconsider all the almost fourth wall breaking because it either means consciousness that they are in a story..

or it means that someone in universe is writing this story, controlling it or rather losing control on the narrative and that someone is Mike. Very pointedly it’s the season we lose Mike’s pov entirely, the season Mike is completely different from the character we knew and loved,

it’s the season where he is trying so hard to conform he loses his control of the narrative entirely, (i believe this happens at the end of ep6 and he only gets it back at the end of season 4, the love confession aka the deal with god/selling his soul to the devil, he makes.)

“Women act on emotion not logic” oh Michael how ironic is it that the writer made you say that when it’s literally your own emotions that are spiraling out of control as the plot gets crazier and more non sensical.

And if you consider it’s a meta narrative, the plot of season 3 not only makes perfect sense, but it becomes brilliant.

We open season 3 with the show telling us Mike is essentially living a double life, he makes out with El, he has a girlfriend he brings it up constantly she is his curtain, his cover, she doesn’t go out of the cabin, she is confined there and has been pretty much for their entire

relationship, even though we learn she can actually get out of the cabin and does as season 3 progresses. And then double life he leaves her to go on a cinema date with Will, and they do this all the time, they sit together, Mike stares at his lips, the power cuts out,

and when it comes back on, hands are trying to grip the character on screen, this is no coincidence, Mike was thinking of holding Will’s hand, while we are meant to think it’s the steel work factory or the Russian lab (both work in this analogy).

But let’s reconsider this, Mike is living a double life, the mall is also living a double life, it’s a perfectly normal American mall on the outside (like Mike is a perfectly normal heterosexual boy) and yet hides a Russian lab that literally popped out of nowhere and yet is so

well made (homosexuality), trying to open a gate to the upside down (why the hell is there a gate under this mall all of a sudden? this is literally never explained), Mike spends the whole season saying people are spying on him, conspiring against him, and it’s the season with

Here is PART 2 : https://x.com/achromatic_wh/st...