When it comes to theories concerning Stranger Things and the Upside Down this one is an absolute doozy but if you discount a few different things then it might actually make a bit of sense. So are you ready? Will Byers created the Upside Down. Yep, that’s it, the whole theory, not quite the explanation but definitely something to think about as Adrienne Tyler from ScreenRant points out with a few different explanations. Thinking about it quickly it might make some sense considering that Will was the only one that was taken into the Upside Down and managed to survive for a while, even though ‘surviving’ was kind of a hard thing to really justify considering that he had one of the slug-like things that would become the dog-like creatures that came about in season 2, implanted in his body. Still, there’s enough to go on at this point to really pay close attention and think about just what might justify this theory.
The whole thing would stem from Will’s father Lonnie, when he was still in the picture, taking money from Hawkins Lab to allow the scientists to use his son as a guinea pig. Of course this would be behind Joy’s back since you can imagine how much of a ruckus she would raise upon finding such a thing had happened. But going from this conspiracy theory it stands to reason that if Will was found to have his own power set, perhaps even on par with Eleven at one point, he could have created the Upside Down within the Void where Eleven first met up with the Demogorgon. It still seems like a very big pill to swallow, especially since the idea that the Upside Down is a nightmare version of Hawkins as far as we know. Where the theory kind of falls apart is by stating that Will has a working knowledge the town in its entirety and the grounds beyond it. Of course that could explain why we only saw certain areas within the town that he might have seen and could possibly know about, such as the school, his home, the town itself, and various other areas. Tilly Pearce of Metro has expanded a bit on this, adding her own fuel to this warming fire of conspiracy. But really when you think about it, Will’s power could have created the world he knew, which would mean beyond Hawkins there would be nothing other than the Void.
But then what happened to his powers, right? Well, much as Eleven lost her powers, it could be that Will lost his powers when he came back to the real world. Perhaps releasing the slug-like creature into the world was the final release that stripped everything from him. After all, Eleven seemed stripped when the Mind Flayer struck her, and she hadn’t gained her power back by the end of the third season. So maybe, just maybe, Will lost whatever power he had before the second season. That would explain why he couldn’t resist the Mind Flayer when it finally possessed him. There’s also another point to this theory that the creatures from the Upside Down were Will’s creations, meaning the reason they never killed him was that they saw him as their creator and therefore regarded him as someone to be protected. Of course they did this in a very strange way but at the same time you can honestly admit that they didn’t seem intent on ending him. The theory thus far holds water in some regards but it either stands or falls apart on the basic premise of whether or not his father did in fact give him over to the Hawkins Lab in order to make some quick cash. Of course his appearance in the story doesn’t really bear this out, but it doesn’t deny it either. It does show that he’s a despicable individual that traumatized Jonathan Byers and actually though Will was a homosexual. If he did sell Will to the lab it’s kind of hard to believe that Joyce knew nothing about it. There’s likely a way to make this theory fit into that small crevice of possibility, but it’s a tight fit.
It’s a possibility really since there is that plausible deniability that Lonnie has as being a scumbag father that doesn’t care about his kids or even what happened to Will. He stayed with Joy for a few days just to see if he could get a settlement when a body thought to be Will was found in the quarry after all. Having a father like Lonnie would certainly be bad enough, but the trauma of such a thing would no doubt be enough to unlock any latent power that Will might have possessed. But creating the Upside Down means he was at one time a superpower that would likely eclipse Eleven since despite being powerful she was still limited in what she could do. It’s interesting to think about at least.
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