biggestbyelershipper

[biggestbyelershipper]

To those still around and wondering what's going on with me (sort of):

Yes, I'm still alive and well.

Yes, I've seen the new trailer (that's why I'm here).

Yes, I will watch the new season when it's released.

No, I will not be binging it after the disappointment that was season 3. I'll watch it at a slower pace this time around.

And last but not least: No, I won't be online all the time but inbox and and DM's are open, so those are the ways to make me come online.

I hope you're all doing well, have a great rest of your day.

[biggestbyelershipper]

Official Message from Donald Trump to Joe Biden (White House tour)

[biggestbyelershipper]

Lucas: Hey Mike, how did you tell Will that you like him? Will: *looks at Mike* Mike: Well, ummm… Lucas: Because I really like Max but I don’t know how to break the news to her. I don’t even know if she feels the same way.  Will: *stares at Mike*  Mike: *looks at Will*  Mike: *sighs* Okay yes, I like you too.  Lucas: *eyes widen* Wait, you didn’t– Lucas: Oh god! I’m so sorry! I always saw you two together, I thought…wow. Sorry.  Max: *comes up behind Lucas* So…you like me, huh stalker?  Lucas: *jumps* OH NO!  Max: No?  Lucas: I mean, OH YES!  Lucas: *mumbles* Wow that wound up being easier than I thought.  Mike: Same.��

[biggestbyelershipper]

Will: “Dudes, stay calm. I’ve been training for this moment my whole life. With all the horror movies I’ve seen, I literally know all there is to know about to avoid monsters.” (promptly gets possessed by the Mind Flayer) Will: “Second thought, gonna flip the script. Can I, eat your brains? Yea or Nay? Seeing some Yea faces over here.”

(source: Gravity Falls)

[biggestbyelershipper]

I completely agree with all of the above and I think most of the people that will read this can see the signs. Having said that, I don’t think we will ever see there relationship take shape on the show. The way season 3 erased most of their relationship, I have very little confidence in the fact that they’ll restore and build on it.

Heteronormativity and its impact on Stranger Things

While taking a walk today, I got to thinking about how romantic relationships are handled on TV and in movies. It generally comes down to the basic formula of the male and female leads getting romantically linked, regardless of any actual romantic building. We just expect a man and a woman who meet to have some degree of romantic attraction to each other. We see it all the time in real life. How many of you have had friends or relatives who see boy and girl toddlers interacting and begin to say things like “He’ll be a real heartbreaker.” or “Oh, I hear wedding bells.” I imagine many of us who oppose the idea of heteronormativity have fallen into this behavior as well.

We simply have been conditioned to expect boys and girls to pair off. Joyce and Hopper had a fan following for their relationship as early as season 1, despite there not being much to go on until season 2. We knew they were familiar with each other, but there wasn’t really much in the way of romantic undertones. Still, fans started to pair them together. Mike and El’s fan base acted like they were the best couple in the history of fiction, even though they were 12 and only knew each other for a week. There were even people who shipped Will with Jennifer Hayes. Why? Because she cried at his funeral. That’s it. That’s all they needed.

Strong relationships between same-sex pairs end up being written off as mere friendship and/or adoration. Even worse, terrible same-sex relationships take off as popular pairings. Look at Steve and Billy. There’s no reason for those two to be romantically linked, but it’s one of the most popular pairs in the fandom. It reeks of a horrible concept of homosexuality, one characterized by animalistic attraction and a lack of genuine affection. This all harkens back to old ideas of gay people: that they are sexual deviants, immoral, primal. There’s still this idea in even progressive culture that sees the heterosexual couple as the ideal, and the homosexual couple as inferior. The better among those who think this way at least understand it is not a good mindset to have, but it still leaks, subconsciously or not, its way into popular culture.

Had Will been a girl, there’s no question as to whether his relationship with Mike would be seen as romantic. There’d be a full-fledged ship war going on. We’d have Team Will vs Team El. I realize that I have my own biases in this, but I didn’t start seeing Mike and Will romantically because I wanted them to get together. I started wanting them to get together because I was reading that there was something going on between them. Just close your eyes and imagine these scenes with a female actor playing Will:

Mike becomes intensely worried after Will disappears and goes searching for her despite the growing danger.

Mike breaks down in tears when Will’s (fake) body is pulled from the quarry. He tries to console himself by looking through the drawings she had given him.

Mike is the only one awake in the hospital waiting room, and the first to rush to Will’s side when she wakes up.

Mike dotes on Will during the entirely of Season 2. He’s constantly in tune with her emotional needs.

Will trusts Mike, and Mike alone, with what is going on with her. Mike tells her that if they’re both going crazy, then they’ll go crazy together. Will smiles and says, “yeah, crazy together.”

Mike becomes Will’s primary source of comfort throughout the season. He stays by her side, making use of a lot of physical contact. 

Despite the Mindflayer eating into Will’s memory, she still remembers who Mike is. Mike smiles a bit bashfully in response.

Mike tearfully recollects meeting Will in an attempt to break through to her. Will starts off staring blankly at him, as she did with Joyce and Jonathan, but by the end of Mike’s story her eyes are glassy and her mouth is trembling.

When a boy walks up and asks Zombie Girl if she wants to dance, Will looks over at Mike briefly before going off at his urging. Mike suddenly looks stunned and then upset.

That summer, when Mike meets Will, Max, and Lucas for a movie, Mike sits with Will a row apart from Max and Lucas. He notices when Will sense the Mindflayer, asking her if she’s ok.

When Mike bails on the party to go off and make out with El, Will turns away with a sad look on her face.

In fact, everytime Mike makes a display of his feelings for El, Will looks sad.

When Mike and Will fight, and Mike asks if Will really expected things their relationship to stay the same forever, Will tearfully says she did. Mike looks sad as she bikes away from him. He chases after her in the rain to apologize.

As Will sits in Castle Byers, she looks around at pictures of her and Mike and recollects him telling a campaign. She calls herself stupid and proceeds to destroy everything.

Before she moves away, Will packs up her D&D set to donate to Erica. Mike nervously asks what she’s doing, but Will reassures him that she’ll just use his set when she comes back. She tells Mike it’s not possible for her to find a new party. They smile at each other.

This would be a blatant “Will they or won’t they?” situation if Will were a girl. There would be no shock that Will had feelings for Mike or that Mike had feelings for Will if it were to be revealed explicitly. Everyone would already have been waiting for it, regardless of who they wanted Mike to end up with. There would be no cries of pandering or sexualization of children. Fans wouldn’t be threatening to burn merchandise or boycott the show.

I know there’s no chance that anyone associated with the show will ever read this. I know that I probably shouldn’t get so worked up about the love lives of fictional teenagers. Still, the entire situation, and the fact that most fans insist Mike and Will are just friends, reeks of heteronormativity. It’s nothing more than a low-grade homophobia. It pisses me off. This mindset is one of the last obstacles to same-sex couples being truly accepted. Stranger Things has a real opportunity to strike a blow against it, but I worry that it won’t. The buildup is genuinely all there, we are not delusional, but will they pull the trigger on it?  I’ve grown to be pessimistic about such things. I hope I’m proven wrong.

[biggestbyelershipper]

Look, he’s not like you, Hopper. He’s not like me. He’s not like… most.

STRANGER THINGS — WILL BYERS IS GAY!

[biggestbyelershipper]

just finished Stranger Things S2 and I absolutely love Will Byers and think this baby will be an absolute heartrob. I cant help it, it has to be drawn 

IM SO SORRY I DRAW ALMOST ONLY ANIME-ISH D;

[biggestbyelershipper]

Nancy takes out a set of binoculars.

Jonathan: Hey! No. We can’t. Will trusts me, he talks to me sometimes and I seriously can’t betray his trust like this…

Nancy: Well Mike never talks to me, and I really want to know what has been up with … oh my god!

Jonathan: What is it?

Nancy puts her binoculars down.

Nancy: Mike just gave me the middle finger. But. How can he see us…?

Jonathan grabs the binoculars.

Jonathan: … he’s got one hand in the air, one arm around Will and…

Jonathan drops the binoculars and elbows Nancy indignantly.

Jonathan: You didn’t mention they were kissing!

Nancy: Well you seemed a little more concerned with them finding out we were following them, so I guess it slipped my mind!

[biggestbyelershipper]

yeah

[biggestbyelershipper]

It was the best thing I’ve ever done.

[biggestbyelershipper]

Mike: Will, I’m gonna give you a kiss. Mike: *gives him two kisses* Mike: Ha! I gave you two kisses! April Fool’s! Will: … Will: It’s April 3rd. Mike: Is it? Huh. Mike: *kisses him again* Mike: Guess I better give you three kisses then. Will: You know, I don’t think that’s really how that works, but I’m not going to complain.

[biggestbyelershipper]

Mike baby, you'd get so jealous over Will. Don't even try.

Lmao

[biggestbyelershipper]

will and mike, back from seeing a movie: we got called gay at starcourt tonight

dustin: tell us about it

mike: well…we got called gay at starcourt

lucas: yeah, but why

will: we were being gay

max: at starcourt?

mike: yeah it was at starcourt

[biggestbyelershipper]

Will: Bad news: Max locked her keys inside the house. Will: Good news: we didn’t have to wait around for a locksmith.  Will: Bad news: she finds it very concerning that I know how to pick locks, and tried to unlock my Tragic Backstory. I was too embarrassed to admit that the reason I learned was because I figured it was the kind of skill that would impress cute boys.  Will: Good news: a cute boy saw me doing it.  Will: Bad news: It was Mike, and since he’s already seen me fall out of several trees, cry because I saw a fawn that was just too damn small, and knows I can ride a unicycle, he’ll never think I’m cool no matter what I do. It’s too late. He knows.  Dustin: … Dustin: …you realize you and Mike are dating, right? 

[biggestbyelershipper]

This scene is so important.

[biggestbyelershipper]

Cute gay non-fiction

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