#because Mike and Will are extremely important to the whole plot

[lucystark12]

tbh i think the reason i have so much byler doubt even when i know in my soul for a fact that it's real is because i am so deeply traumatized from game of thrones. literally i was able to comprehend at age eleven that the game of thrones ending was bad just because everyone was talking about it, from my parents friends to them, then i watched it for the first time a few years ago and fell deeply in love with it just to have my heart inevitably torn out from my chest and to be laughed at in the face by david benioff and d.b. weiss. i was literally gutted. it hurt me to the core of my being because other than stranger things i have NEVER put close to that much stock in characters. stranger things is the only show i have ever loved in the same way as i did game of thrones and also the only show whose characters i have literally depended on having the right endings. game of thrones has taught me not to trust writers and has made me EXTREMELY apprehensive about the ending of stranger things (specifically mike's arc, who i see so much of jaime lannister in that it literally makes me physically ill)

what i always forget about game of thrones though is that there was a clear reason for it being bad- it's because game of thrones is based off of a book series that isn't finished yet, and when the show runners ran out of genius george r. r. martin plots to adapt, they were given the reigns. and they clearly didn't understand their characters.

david and dan weren't given enough time and source material to give the characters the endings they deserved. they simply didn't know how to do it right, essentially "marvelifying" game of thrones into just a box office hit with expensive fight scenes and dull characters. they never got to set up the VERY important things that have to happen to finally get the characters to where they need to be.

matt and ross ARE. NOT. THE. SAME. these two wrote the original concept for the show and have been the ones in charge the whole time. shows like this don't become famous for being big and loud and dramatic, they become famous for having compelling characters, which is quite literally at the heart (haha) of every story. unless you are literally telling a natural disaster story, your plot is determined by the people who are a part of it. this is why you can't write a fulfilling story by just making something random happen, you have to make your ending coincide with the endings that make sense for your unique characters and what will help finish their arcs. dan and david didn't have the proper set up yet, but matt and ross do.

at the current moment, all signs point to byler. i mean, we know this. there is literally no reason that it shouldn't happen now, that all of this incredible writing and symbolism would come to a head with a rejection at the end. matt and ross haven't run out of source material, they are award winning writers who know what they're doing. there is no reason for them to waste time on plot lines that will essentially just hit a wall with no conclusive ending in the way game of thrones did. dan and david heard "subvert expectations" and took it the wrong way, subverting the character arcs that had been build up for literally decades instead of doing what is george's real plan, to subvert the tropes and commonalities that we see all across fantasy writing and even at most times in the real world. stranger things is also in part about subverting expectations, but matt and ross understand what it actually means to take on that title. subvert expectations- subvert REAL and CONCRETE societal norms, not the way the human brain and heart function.

[0aurelion-sol0]

What do you want or expect Will's arc to be?

Well, again I'm sorry but this is something I cannot go over too extensively as I will talk about it in future posts at some point but regardless I will try to give an answer to your ask.

I am going to elaborate on what I think The Duffers will do first and what I want/think should happen after that.

We know from that Variety article that released back in August 2023 that Will is going to take center stage again in season 5 and that I quote “This emotional arc for him is what we feel is going to hopefully tie the whole series together. Will is used to being the young one, the introverted one, the one that’s being protected. So part of his journey, it’s not just sexuality — it’s Will coming into his own as a young man.” says Ross Duffer.

Now what I think is important to take from that quote and that part of the article is the part where they say that they hope his emotional arc is what is going to tie the whole story together which means they value, in some way, that Will's story as a whole, not just his sexuality, is going to be what gives the conclusion to the story of Stranger Things. They did not say [one of the things], they said [the thing] *wink wink*. Now between what The Duffers say and what they actually do, there is a gap but I do think that is a bold statement when you're about to enter your final season.

Because sure, I do think Will is more important than the series has led us to think but at it's core, it remains an ensemble type of show and is what was really happening during Season 1 & Season 2. Yes, there are stronger characters driving the story (and become way too present over others as the story progresses) & was first sold as the Winona Ryder show and after that the El show but it remained at it's core an ensemble show.

So for the Duffers to use Will, the character with the most inconsistent spotlight of the entire show apart from his brother, as the thing that ties the whole series together, that is bold cause as I said theories and biases aside, this is going to be a challenge and it is still a show that relies heavily on it's cast & characters to tell it's story. Now the way they do it and how well they do it is definitely up for debate but still.

There are for me, 4 main important parts of Will's character that are essential to his arc and for it to conclude well.

His homosexuality, what happened to him on November 6th, 1983, his connection to the Upside Down and his past.

Out of the 4 that I see The Duffers be very focused on for this final season, it's the two that are connected, his disappearance & his spider-sense because they have become very plot-focused as the series went on; they are going to have to explore his homosexuality, I don't see them doing something surprising or extremely developped with it anymore but they have kept that around and they are probably going to give a conclusion to it that's going to benefit the first two.

His past isn't going to be that explored much apart things linked to the first two and homosexuality but even then probably more in terms of vague mentions than anything really concrete. And it's because The Duffers, unless they pull something magnificent, have as of now and after everything they showed for the past two seasons have other priorities for want they want to explore which I don't think is the best choice for again, an ensemble show but it is what it is, and we need to be prepared for it.

I AM EAGER to be proven absolutely wrong but so far nothing has changed my mind about it, nothing has really alarmed me either which there's that at least.

So now what I want or think should happen...

About his homosexuality, his gayness, his rainbow-colored-emotional-state, his reddit is always scared of this debate, it's been there forever, it's obvious, I think if you're still in doubt about it, you need to go take a media literacy class, that boy is gay, that boy loves Mike Wheeler, let's end the debate. I'm sick of this fandom always turning endlessly on this subject, let's move on.

Now what do with it now, well the coming out, it's on everybody's lips these days, obviously, it's going to go to Joyce, Jonathan and the Party (mostly Mike, Dustin and Lucas). We are not going to talk about Byler, that's not the subject of today's post. I think overall, I don't see, for me, anything about Will's relationship with his sexuality that stops him from being out, at least to his close ones if not the world. The events that he went through outside and because of it, already ostracizes him from everyone else, including the ones he loves, that is just a fact and I think Will knows this & I don't think it's him being gay that is problematic for him, it's his very strong feelings for Mike that will probably be understood now by everyone and that will change the "nature" of them now but also acknowledging the lost innocence and naivity he experienced very very young even before the Upside Down stuff.

Because when Will comes out, it is not just him being gay that will come out, it's everything he went through because of it & he's going to start, in a way, healing from all it & that is sometimes just as tough as going through the trauma. And in a way, he kinda already started that process back in Season 4 so I think it would make sense for him to continue that path. It's going to be emotional, it would make sense and needs to be that way but to me the coming out definitely needs to be Joyce, Jonathan and as I said, Mike, Dustin & Lucas.

And I would like to be very clear, though I don't think it will be that much because ST & The Duffers have lost that touch for me, but I would like it to be very clear for him & the others and us, that he is gay, he likes boys and doesn't like girls, don't have to say it that direct but in a similar way because that's what a lot of queer people have to go through I think & it's actually verbalizing the fact that they are queer. Because we are going to have too much dumbasses still telling us he is not & it's important again for the representation be properly done in a satisfying way.

Next, his past, I think it would be essential to explore Will's trauma again because of his sexuality but also other elements of his character like the love he has for the arts, D&D, relationship he has with Lonnie & also violence because that is also important but I'll discuss that in another post. Because it would help us understand more about he & The Byers function as a whole but give us more depth & element to feel a satisfying conclusion to characters that have been left on the bench for quite some time now because if you talk about Will's past and issues, you will need to talk about Joyce's and Jonathan's past & issues and all the abuse they went through, which has become quite an important element to the plot now that hasn't been that well developed for all the characters and it would be nice if it starts being well developed.

Plus it leads to one of the reasons why he was taken AND not killed in 1983 which leads us to what is his connection to the UD now... and before. 👀

Because if the emotional arc of Will is important to tie the whole series together, it's important for the supernatural arc too & that opens interesting threads that I can't get into this post now.

After that, I think the climate of Season 5 needs to show us a more hardened Will, one that'll force Will to get his hands dirty to survive and to protect the group as well, while also fighting against things from his past that may be quite important for him with how he perceives and react to violence or danger. I would like to see a Will that's not always and has wants & needs that don't align for everyone & goes against the bigger geopolitical groups that are fighting including the supernatural ones. OH YES! I am going there!

Him being a villain would not make sense and would be a no no for me, but sometimes falling on the grey sides of things would make sense and would be so enjoyable for me. Especially against the threat that's looming on everyone in Season 5.

Also possibly drawing a parallel to what he experienced in 1983, because he survived in some way and we're going to need to explore that in the present. Will might likely be the most useful person to have in a UD infested environment. And him realising that he is useful is going to force him to go back to what happened and why that happened to help the best way he can, because if there's anything that boy knows how to do better than anyone else on this, it's self-sabotaging for the greater good.

Again, it's a snowball effect, if you do one thing you're going to have to do and explore another, to me, they are linked. Are the Duffers going to do that ? I'm unsure. But that's what makes sense to me.

So here's your answer, sorry if it's a bit vague but I will be exploring this in many different posts in the future.

[fullmusicbardsquared]

not many new insights from "the one-armed man", but I have some further plumbing & a few discarded thoughts..

the opening sequence emphasizing the black & white rocks of the waterfall feels important now

leland walking into the room right as sarah says she's never seen Bob before - I'm starting to get an awful suspicion about him.

reiterating "twin peaks doesn't want to be analyzed" - invitation to love definitely seems like a parody of its more "soap opera" elements, emphasized by it also having a necklace plot (though the problem is that the necklace exists instead of it being gone), and by lucy recapping (mixing up?) the plot when truman asks her for information.

I hope dr. jacoby kills himself like I could point out his red/black glasses (starting to think that's code for sexual abuse of women) and how his ramblings make him seem like a doppelganger evil cooper (also hawaii is not "in the east" are you fucking stupid.) but I dont want to I just want him TO DIE.

interesting that cooper speculates he is a conduit but doesn't mention any prior 'psychicness' unlike sarah (and laura, if donna is correct)...maybe THAT'S why he's wrong so often, because he has a more passive form of 'the gift' and can only tap into it and do guesswork?

gerard losing an arm -> no left arm and no left shoes either (though they're just not shown...) -> losing a brother who was "the brawn" as opposed to his brains -> middle name michael -> Mike wishing to Stop The Killing and so cutting off his arm & thus Bob?

audrey "dreaming on" again, this time about cooper, and she recaps the whole plot & then (tries to) becomes an investigator (we'll see how that goes)..is she like the audience?

the gun range was just kind of darkly hilarious - saying women are from a different blueprint and then shooting up targets. interested in cooper's vague old relationship.

cooper's command to pay STRICT attention to coincidence feels like more teasing. also, his boss sounds a lot like david lynch. hmm.

I don't understand the Owl yet, though admittedly all I know about them is that "the owls are not what they seem" quote. from its appearance here...it kind of seems like, it made donna and james conduits? it hooted and they switch over to extreme emotion.

[oceanfruitsstuff]

Mike and El analysis

Somewhat riding off of the love triangle conversation about El, Mike and, Will. (Mr. A, Miss B, and Mr. C) I think it’s always important to re-discuss Mike and what his arc is/what he’s really up to.

It’s interesting. He’s a main character, he was the main character for awhile. Stranger Things has a lot of moving parts, and not one character can be in focus all the time. Even El, who is argued to be “the most important character” isn’t always at the forefront of action or focus. Honestly except for season one and three, she’s usually excluded from the “main action”. As I said before, her character arc is heavily based on finding her individuality, her place in the world, and who she is. Which makes sense, since her entire childhood she was ripped of a real life and her main focus was, that’s right, being a superhero. We see that displayed in season 4 when we watch her take down One in the lab. She is the only character that is really separated so the writers have that time to dive into her past, who she really is as a person, and where her character is going. In season 4, many things are painted out for us rather clearly—but El’s arc, at least emotionally, is almost wrapped up. We see her really step into herself and her power, there’s this relief surrounding her in the sense that she’s found her path and no longer needs that external validation of love and strength, because she found it within herself, and has confidence in who she really is. The lab plot line did an amazing job at showing her growth throughout season four. As well as showing us the final focus of her character—Henry. Romance isn’t even touching her character, it was never supposed to be an end goal for her, I think that’s even displayed from the very start with her asking Mike if he’s gonna be like her brother, but I digress. Anyway I loved her in season 4, I thought watching her come into her own skin was really enjoyable.

Now Mike. The love confession is somewhat odd for a vast number of reasons, but for me, it just seemed so out of character for him, like he took a step in the wrong direction. Mike wasn’t going to say anything until Will practically forced him to, and Mike felt that leadership obligation to fix things, like he always does. We really only received Will’s POV and El’s throughout that whole speech—which is extremely strange since Mike is the one confessing. Anyway, many have already delved into the shallowness of what he’s said, so no need for that, but I think the reason the audience at large felt such a disconnect with Mike this season is because he’s in a wonky place with where his character arc has been going, and everyone is subconsciously uncomfortable with the somewhat meek way he held himself at times. I personally think that Mike was not seen in the “main action” this season because Will wasn’t really in danger. He kind of kicked his feet up, because if Will isn’t threatened, Mike folds more into the background, because his “other half” is safe. Doesn’t even have to be romantic, but Will and Mike are a team, that visually is very clear.

Now, Mike is not entirely different or odd, we see the same Mike we’ve known for years in moments. Those moments with Will are very familiar to everyone because we’ve seen those two have the same toned conversations with different words for 4 seasons. Their interactions weren’t surprising at all, they’ve had this same dance throughout the entire show. They sit and they talk, they stand and they talk, they fight about wanting attention from one another, then they sit and talk some more. It’s very routine for them. Mike’s main arc has always revolved around Will and Vice versa. That’s not really a debatable topic, whether it’s platonic or not, it’s the structure we’re watching his character follow. I personally don’t believe Mike and Will truly work as characters without one another. But that’s completely opinion based, so don’t quote me.

Season one starts off each of their first personal arcs and friendships. While everyone is focused on saving Will, it’s zeroed in on Mike to display to the audience the different relationship Mike has with Will. Throughout the show we’re also shown that Mike isn’t “the boss” of the core four, Dustin and Lucas hold just as much say and power as he does—unless the problem is concerning Will, then Mike is immediately “in charge”. Mike’s practically blind to anything else for a majority of the time in season 1. Season 2, main focus is Will primarily. Even though he thinks about El/talks about her, his plotline is woven with Will’s. Season 3, the second the plot actually picks up, he’s plastered to Will’s side. Yes to be fair, at the end when they’re at the mall his focus is El, but the interesting point about that whole thing, is that he’s going neck to neck with Max, which is another display of the platonic energy Mike and El hold, he can’t “get her alone” in a sense. Max and El become closer than El and Mike have been the whole time in a single montage and they make sure to show us that Max is following the lines of El’s arc correctly which, again, is independence. She can fit nicely into El’s story, because she is a part of El’s true arc. Which, again, is independence. Max fits in El’s story, Mike doesn’t. Not that he’s some bad guy at all, he tries to show his care, but in season 3 he’s trying to treat her like we’ve seen him treat Will at the end there, the difference is Will eats that up and loves it, El doesn’t.

I’m yapping so sorry, let me circle back. Mike seemed strange and disconnected from sympathy from the audience because he seems shallow with El. He’s not, but it appears that way from the perspectives that we’re getting. El and him don’t exist in the same bubble—they can’t, it’s never truly worked, they always get pulled apart and separated visually, because in writing their arcs are not meant to intertwine, they don’t work together just as characters, removing everything else surrounding them. Mike is a protector, he’s never placed on his own, what holds his character together is how he holds other characters together. He’s the glue and we’ve seen that throughout the show. He’s a leader in many situations. El does not need nor want his protection, at least not anymore. Everyone in the show has some subplot of learning who they are, growing up, but they’re still all fake and chess pieces for the writers to use to push plots. Mike is never displayed to us as a character finding independence or more so ���finding himself” because that is not the main focus of where his character is going, if that makes sense. Mike’s arc is tightly woven within the other characters, primarily Will, and that’s why I believe there’s this headbutt El and Mike have every single time we see them on screen and working together. The two of them alone accomplish nothing, it’s not until another chess piece (character) steps in that they can move the plot in the right direction. Whether that be, Lucas and Dustin, Max, or Will.

Anyway, what I’ve just noticed is that as characters, Mike and El struggle to exist in the same space. They can’t communicate, because they don’t understand eachother at a base level.

But also even the love confession BOTH Max and Will are looming around, the only reason anything happened was cause Will pushed Mike to talk, and El saw Max getting hurt and forced herself to free herself because of her love for her best friend. It’s honestly crazy. This is all just my opinion and thoughts on it all, who knows I might be wrong, but it’s fun to analyze.

[spicybylerpolls]

“Nobody does anything cool anymore, and everybody is afraid of everything,” Vinson Cunningham said in a recent roundtable about the death of the sex scene for the New Yorker. “We are in a decadent, post-excitement world.”

The widespread access to porn online, according to Cunningham, raised the bar for a sex scene from titillation to plot. It wasn’t enough to make people horny; a sex scene had to move the story forward or serve a stylistic purpose. Narrative momentum can in itself be a turn-on. As a teenager growing up online, I was significantly less interested in porn, which felt obviously fake, than in Youtube compilations and cuts of various sex scenes, which had the trappings of real characters, and thus real life. The scenes felt fascinating, shocking, spellbinding, adult. Maybe not actually realistic, but vibrant and vital, validation of my own capacity for eroticism. Sex is an essential part of humanity, sex scenes an essential reflection of the human experience. Perhaps the most frustrating element of this particular anti-sex scene argument is its fixation on a justification for sex on-screen, as if people wanting to have sex or wanting to be turned on is not character-driven or important enough. To deny the power of sex on-screen is to deny one of the core reasons to watch anything in the first place: desire, a basic human impulse and a gift.

from this article: https(:)//archive.ph/VqXbY

And as relates to byler and culture itself, another piece....

In a culture of convenience, where values are understood increasingly through their digital imprints, things feel nauseatingly 2D because they literally are. Marshall McLuhan predicted this a long time ago. [in the 60s with his 'the medium is the message' - a concept which relates to ST as a whole!] I’ve started thinking of this quality as sexlessness. I’m using sex here as a euphemism for the natural arousal that attends life in 3D, sexual or not. It is the antithesis of the gamified pleasure we pursue online, which has now infiltrated our values offline too. Consider beauty, which is today often understood as a set of objective, imitable, purchasable characteristics, rather than a quality experienced through movement, context, subjectivity, mystery, actual presence. When I think of the dominant trends of the last five or 10 years, most of them engender this same lack of humanity: personal branding; biohacking; virtual reality; reality television; fillers and filters; botox and plastic surgery; being extremely online; corporate activism; minimalism; cancel culture; labels for every type of person and personality... One way to view the irritating state of things is as a kind of collective sexual frustration. '“Nobody does anything cool anymore, and everybody is afraid of everything."'

The above is from: https(:)//haleynahman.substack.com/p/89-the-death-of-sex

I see this page has died down a bit but wanted to drop this for any deep thinkers out there, because it speaks to the wider issue and shows how spicy byler tumblr (and indeed byler tumblr, and by extension ST fandom and all fandom itself) is part of this wider issue of being engrossed in the kind of culture that removes you from visceral, realistic pleasures and what this might mean for society.

Can we expect eroticism from Stranger Things? Not in an arthouse way, I don't think, but i'm fascinated to see how they position themselves in the zeitgeist of gay media, conservative media, and media that is willing to portray sex - especially considering that the portrayal of sex could and would indeed have narrative purpose for mike and will. the duffers might just have set up one of the best stories to portray this experience, and redefine the entire genre if they can pull it off.

Always grateful for your thoughts and contributions to the spicy byler fandom (and the byler fandom at large), scrunchietown. It's so true that there's a general sexlessness in media, even as people try to complain that everything's too sexualized when that's not true, especially not in mainstream movies. Last summer there were a lot of people freaking out about the (pretty tame) sex scene in Oppenheimer! Perhaps there are more sex scenes in Max shows like Euphoria, but even so, I do think the Duffers have the opportunity to do something truly special and redefine the sex scene. Byler has the opportunity to be groundbreaking in so many ways!

"One way to view the irritating state of things is as a kind of collective sexual frustration."

Society if Byler helps to heal our collective sexual frusturation:

[peach-fiz]

I actually didn't even bother watching the second season of Loki because of the cheap marketing and inconsistent storytelling.

It just felt like the plot was lifted off somewhere it would have made sense, and a character with a similar ego was replaced with Loki and goes through an arc that might have made sense for a blank slate character, but not someone who already has a backstory.

Loki doesn't even feel like Loki after three episodes in S1. The whole point of having a show like that just seems to be about the TVA and Sylvie.

Also the whole genderfluid thing. They 'confirmed' it in the promo and had a line in the script that went completely against anything they just said.

I knew at once that the writers, directors and other parts of production were really just pulling it in different directions and it would probably sound like a jazz trumpeter and a metal guitarist trying to improvise after knowing each other for 15 minutes.

I've been meaning to watch it just so I can have educated opinions on all of it but it's just,, so hard to get into. I definitely agree the marketing was cheap, they did with the 80s McDonald's like they did DB Cooper!Loki and made it centric to the advertising because McDonalds was also getting something out of it which is kinda ass seeing as realistically Loki Laufeyson would burn 6 of them down before he ate in one 😭

I personally don't like either of the major ships in the show but the forced Sylki shit in season 1 really got to me. Like not only did she completely replace him as the main character in HIS show, she's also a variant of him who he wants to make out with and overall it just reads as lazy writing and it's extremely disappointing that Mike Waldron has been put in charge of Multiverse of Madness and The Kang Dynasty since, due to the popularity of the Loki TV show. I was talking to my boyfriend about this last night but it kinda reminds me of the complaints people had ab the last Indiana Jones movie but opposite? Like everyone complained his best friend's daughter was gonna replace him bc she's a Mary Sue and she rlly isnt, she's more reminiscent of Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark she just doesn't wanna fuck him. But the difference is Indy is a character who's majorly blank for little boys to project themselves onto. Which is great!! It works for those kind of movies, but they're not character development centric like the individual mcu movies tend to be. Loki is characterized in a way that he's drowning in identity issues and family problems and he experiences growth in every installment whether it be positive or negative. It doesn't make sense to take the formula of an Indidna Jones movie where he meets up with a woman who's typically a love interest and has her own issues that are only slightly touched on because that's not the focus, and they go do the plot.

Sylvie is not an Indy Girl, they straight up are trying to replace Loki with Sylvie. And you can tell the character wasn't supposed to have as much importance as she does in the show bc the character was worked on more after the actress they chose was buddies with a producer ( and this is no hate to the actress I'm sure she's delightful everything I've seen her in in terms of interviews has been lovely ).

I also absolutely agree they should've just made a tva mini series to introduce the tva rather than bringing back a dead character who soon will not make much sense anyway because Tom Hiddleston is getting older (and also he deserves to branch out in his career).

The genderfluid thing was a cash grab and it sucks ass, they just want money for acknowledging things already canon in the comics, same with confirming him as bisexual.

My boyfriend is actually writing a fic on ao3 called Find Me that's rlly good if you want Loki content that isn't related to the show.

(YES this is shameless promotion sshhhhshshsh) but fr the loki TV show makes me more confident in my screenwriting bc t h a t got put on disney plus. I'm also working on a Loki show rewrite in my spare time!!

[sharedtrauma]

Painting attic room & falcon!!! 🧡

Hehe yay thank you for the ask !!

Painting: do you have a favourite artist/art piece in the fandom?

OOH yes these by @clownblood and this by @yumbles as well as most of @reluctant-fandom-participant’s stuff!!

Attic Room: do you have a favourite writer in the fandom?

Honestly, I can’t answer this one because I am a book fan mainly and I haven’t read any IT book fics yet & I cannot for the life of me remember any of the fics or writers I liked back in the day when I had only seen the movie(s) it was so long ago

Falcon: is there any interpretation of canon you feel most people get wrong?

Very much yes !! I’m general I feel a lot of Beverly’s character gets misinterpreted horribly because of misogyny and the fact that she’s not a “perfect” victim. I’ve seen people imply she’s written inconsistently with both way she fights back against her father’s abuse near the end of the section of them as kids but then marries Tom which, that’s the whole point, the cycle of abuse and forgetting are like…two of the main themes of the book and the way she switches so fast from being so trapped under Tom’s abuse to beating him within an inch of his life and leaving him without a thought like wow it’s almost as if the phone call jogging her memory of her childhood self’s determination and bravery had an effect on her !! Also I do not wanna get into it but no she’s not “freaky” and she isn’t a sexual abuser because of that scene in the sewers, fucking hell. I also don’t think a lot of people are willing to understand the significance of her body changing in childhood and it’s impact on her in the way she’s viewed by men and boys around her and the way it contributes to her fears and instead just go “ew body description” HOWEVER (big however) a lot of the way it’s written is extremely uncomfortable and should have been handled better by a lot in my opinion.

Also hot take, if any of the losers is the main character it’s Mike. Yes Bill is the leader and the one the story opens with but Mike is the only character who who we get the first person view from and the history of Derry is told through him. He takes on the role of narrator a lot and that’s so important!! He is literally the only one who doesn’t forget and is the one who kicks off the story in 1985. Also him being taken out of the final fight is because he is the one It is afraid of. He has a significant amount of power over It and that’s why It targets him. Through Henry as well who, if we’re going with It representing themes of fear and prejudice within small town America, is a very fitting and it find it very powerful the way he survives that attack when the odds are so stacked against him like !!! Mike Hanlon is an incredibly powerful character and I hate how he’s viewed as just a plot device to many people, he’s so much more than that. Like he’s also kind and funny and sweet and weird like come on he has so much personality there’s no reason for everyone to be treating him like a blank slate of a character !! There’s unfortunately a Reason as to why he’s ignored so much by fans.

The same reason why characters like Henry Bowers get let off the hook by so many people. I hate the way people view him with so much empathy and that’s not me saying I don’t also to a degree like yes obviously I feel for him with the way he had to endure abuse from his father and the mental terror It inflicted on him but I’m sorry that guy is an egregiously racist, sadistic bully I will never see anything positive in a character who joyfully commits hate crimes. A lot of people interpret him as purely a victim when it’s like no girl that is racist abuser! Some of you have more sympathy for Henry’s trauma than Mike’s and I find that very telling !!

This got long as fuck sorry. Beverly Marsh and Mike Hanlon they can never make me hate you and you’ll never be boring to me !! I will protect you gothic font.

Questions from this post

[faelorelia]

I simply can’t imagine how Will’s happy ending could be anything but finally getting together with Mike. Why? Because he’s a fictional character, not a real person, and they didn’t focus on his love for Mike so much in S4 for no reason. Mike and Will were literally taken out of the supernatural plot to have several heart-to-heart moments and discuss the status of their relationship. Not rewarding one of their only gay characters, who’s one of the kindest people in the series and has been put through hell, would be absolutely anticlimactic and heartbreaking for many fans.

And asking “What about what Mike wants?” makes zero sense. Why? Because again, he’s a fictional character in a fictional story where everything happens for a reason. If you intend to tell a story of unrequited love, you do it differently. You don’t make the character’s feelings ambiguous, you don’t show how well these characters suit each other while one has relationship problems with his current partner. You don’t sacrifice a queer character’s feelings to uplift the straight relationship, you don’t put these characters together in multiple romantically coded scenes, and you don’t emphasize the importance of their relationship throughout the whole series only to leave a rejection for the finale. If you do, that’s just bad writing, especially considering your story is about nonconformity and the triumph of good. It’s as simple as that.

A finale in which Mike and Will accept their feelings for each other and get together at last will be extremely rewarding for everyone, but especially for the queer community who love this series. It will show that something can go right for a gay character and that after everything he’s been through, he can get his happy ending too. A happy ending that makes sense based on everything shown to us and that he truly deserves. It will be groundbreaking and have a huge positive effect in general.

You know even I experience Byler doubt occasionally but like... how stupid would it be if Mike actually turns out to be completely straight and all we get is an "emotional" scene between him and Will where he just tells Will that he accepts him the way he is even though he can't reciprocate his feelings but "Hey, let's just be best friends forever you'll find someone else!" And then Mike and Eleven get the most unrealistic happy fairytale ending all thanks to Will's past sacrifices to keep their relationship together.

No like that would just ruin all of their characters and the show for me I'm sorry but it would be sooo bad...

[sayyourprayers]

Mike lying in the confession to El is taken so seriously but actually isn't at all like not even close to serious or undoable. It's like any other platitudinous message. Like telling your friend about to fail his exams to not worry he's got this. All will be well. Like c'mon. It's soooooooooo unserious because it was heat of the moment. Extreme stress. As you will see in S5. Any breakup makeup is not hingeing on that one confession at all. There's more serious shit Mike's said that hasn't gotten any follow through on that show. Like even El being mad about the whole love thing like. It's so fucking funny. Cuz what was all of S3 you fuckhead? "You're the most important thing to me" and then this one focusses on "From Mike". No wonder there's people that want an engagement and a wedding, the Duffers are treating it like it's a plotline on some relationship drama (without any of the finesse) but like the plot progression is annoyingly adult. They make out but they don't know if they love each other? 😭😭😭 What are they 25 in need to have a serious conversation about exclusivity and sharing emotional labour and shit? Like what show is this? Like there's any fricking difference when you're 13. I'm embarassed I was ever in or around that cult. Killing past syp with sickles and scythes.

[apencilandpen]

MAC Movie Reviews: 2023 in Review TV Edition

I don't keep track of the TV I watch, but maybe I should! So this one is gonna be a lot less organized :D

Biggest thing is that I've been rewatching Gotham since May of 2023. There's a lot to say about why I love this show so much, but there's also just...so much that happens and its so intense and I can't do it all at once, especially in season 4 when Prof. Pyg shows up. So it's taking me a while :D

On to new shows!

The Untamed - I started it December 2022 and finished it October 2023, so almost a whole year! Which makes sense because there are FIFTY GD EPISODES!!!! But, holy shit as a costume design enthusiast it's a dream. A masterclass in subtext, a horde of beloved and beloathed and love to hate characters, and cool swooshing sword fighting! Highly, highly recommend.

Bloodhounds - Fell in love with the leads within 15 minutes of starting the first episode. They have amazing (non-romantic) chemistry and you just instantly fall for them. Great supporting characters and WONDERFUL action sequences. I love that Gunwoo and Woojin are boxers; its a fresh take on martial arts that I hadn't really seen before. Definitely gets a little much towards the end violence-wise, but such a good show as a whole.

Batman: the Animated Series and Batman: Beyond - I'm pretty sure I watched these in 2023. I love the art style of these, especially Batman: Beyond. The stories are fun and easy, but still engaging and entertaining. I love Terry in B:B so much too :D

The Fall of the House of Usher - Mike Flanagan I love you but oh my god that was so intense. Really, really good, but so gruesome and intense for like no reason

Heartstopper - so so so good. Wholesome and fun without being saccharine or extremely unbelievable. I can't wait to see how the show progresses

New World - I personally think America should import the variety show format. I want to see celebrities play games for basically nothing :D This show is so fun and I've rewatched episodes here and there all year. Highly recommend if you want something easy and fun

I Told Sunset About You/I Promised You the Moon - tear my heart out and put it back together again in the best way possible. Sincere with its story and its characters, both plot and players are believable and engaging. It's a romance, but it's a coming-of-age for them as individuals as well as together. I've got a whole post drafted about it by itself that I should post :D

[dinitride-art]

Five Act Structure: Seasons vs. Acts

Reworking some thoughts and ideas here. If Stranger Things is set up in five act structure (which is so cool and I never want to stop talking about it also here’s this post where I explain what I’m talking about) then the parallels between season two and season four change a bit- but also viewing the story as a whole might change too (when looking at it in five acts).

Season one had a pretty cut and dry story: Will went missing, supernatural elements introduced, character introductions, banishing supernatural elements, Will comes back. If they didn’t get a second season the story would still hold up. This is also a really good set up for the rest of the story, it’s the ~prologue~. Also it’s ACT I. But just talking about the story within the season- it’s solid stuff. There’s stuff that’s unresolved yeah, but not to the point where you’d watch it and think, what’s next. We’re not done here- hey! Get back here- like you would think at the end of let’s say, season four. (Also season one has the first major death that effects the narrative later- barb)

Season two is more complicated than season one. We’re well aware by the end of it that this story is not done- the Mind Flayer is still a problem. The last scene where we flip over into the Upside Down tells us that this part of the story isn’t finished. Season two also starts developing Lucas and Max, and Mike and El’s (although really different from Lucas and Max) relationships. It also explores Mike and Will’s relationship.

The Snowball is a really interesting point in the season because it’s the last episode and the last scene. It’s also a weird sort of misdirection that’s telling us everything worked out okay. But it’s not okay. Bob is dead, El literally just ran away and was being confronted with her past, Will was just possessed, Barb is still dead, the Mind Flayers still alive- the Snowball is like a bandaid on you’re feelings for your best friend. Unhelpful and clearly hiding something. Season two is a good portion of ACT II, and it makes sense for things to be unresolved at the end of season two- because ACT II hasn’t run it’s course yet.

All characters usually are introduced by the end of ACT II, so Robin being introduced in season three would make sense if we’re actually still in ACT II at the start of season three. Season three also continues to follow the Mind Flayer. We’re still dealing with the same problem as season two. Character wise, we’re exploring Lucas and Max’s romantic relationships, El and Max’s relationship (continuing from Max’s interests in El in season two), Mike and El’s relationship, and Mike and Will. We’ve also continued on with Dustin’s focus on girls, and his friendship with Steve. We’re dealing with almost all the same problems for everyone, just continuing in a different season. Our main problem is the Mind Flayer, and that leads us straight to the climax- the Mind Flayer at Star-court and Hopper’s “death”.

Right before the battle at star court is where ACT II ends. Then we get to ACT III, the climax, where everything big happens all at once. Usually the climax is one scene so that’s why I’m saying it’s when they defeat the Mind Flayer, Billy dies, Hopper “dies”, and there are literal fire works going off making everything that much more intense. After the climax, the Byers move away, Mike and El (get back together?) have a relationship development and Mike seems all out of sorts about it, and everything starts going in a downwards spiral.

However, going back to ACT II for a second here, looking at where we are by the time of the climax (and during) everything has pretty much been resolved- Suzie’s revealed as a real person/Dustin’s girl problems stop, all party relationships are pretty okay again. Max and El are friends, Nancy and Jonathan are cool again, Hopper and Joyce were going to go on a date, Mike and El are cool again, pretty much every problem that’s had a clear cut story line from season two finds an end in season three. Of course there’s still things that aren’t resolved, but for the most part, when the season ends it’s okay. The cliff hanger comes separately from the end of the season (like Will in season one).

Season four is a lot like season two; it’s the start of and act but it also stops in the middle of that act. A new problem is introduced in season four: Vecna/Henry Creel/One. This is not the same guy as the Mind Flayer at all. Everything also starts going terribly in season four because now we’re in ACT IV- the bad one. After the climax everything falls to pieces- and where we’re sitting right now, in the middle of ACT IV, it’s still falling apart. Season four problems are going to carry over into season five, much like the Mind Flayer into season three, because it’s the same act.

So this all got me thinking about the act structure in relation to the story, and what if ACT II and ACT IV are paralleling each other, and not just season two and season four? That would mean that all of season two and most of season three could be seen as paralleling season four (and most of season 5). That really changes things for me because that expands the possibility of what’s actually happening quite a bit. It also messes with the idea that season two and season four could be related to each other in specific ways(like being inverted), because ACT II and ACT IV cover different things. However, it would make more sense for ACT II and ACT IV to be paralleled because of the Snow Ball scene in the middle of both of them.

Mike also makes a lot more sense as a narrator when looking at Stranger Things in acts. Season one was a single act, so we saw a lot of Mike. We focused in on him and Joyce because they’re guiding us in season one. In season two, there’s less of Joyce and more of Mike and other characters stories- but Joyce makes a return in season three where Mike falls a bit more off to the side. But looking at season two and three as a whole, it’s pretty well divided between all the characters in respect to their placement and roles within the story. In season four we got a lot more Joyce and a lot more of the other characters development. Mike fell a bit to the side again, but it makes sense for that to happen if ACT IV isn’t completed. We haven’t really gotten to Mike in ACT IV yet. Similar idea with how Will goes from being the focus of season two, to being sidelined in season three. They’re still there and present in the narrative but they’ve done their part of the act- and now are helping the others do theirs.

Season five looks like it’s going to finish the rest of ACT IV (the downwards spiral) and pick up the storylines that haven’t been covered in the act yet. Mike and Will, Jonathan and Nancy, Max and El, Vecna and the Upside Down, the consequences of Eddie’s death, what happened to Owens, mystery around the Upside Down- and everything else that season four started to get into but didn’t actually conclude.

[fraudulent-cheese]

So uh. i've been given the go-ahead to continue derailing this post.

OK TIME TO COMPARE WITH THE MALE CHARACTERS THEN!

So out of all the male contestants, about 16 of them are activally involved in romantic relationships with women, and those are in elimination order Noah (in RR), Tyler, Cody, Harold, Trent, Geoff, Duncan, Owen, Alejandro, Sam, Mike, Rodney (im counting his constant crushing), Dave, Shawn, Caleb, Ripper and Chase.

Out of all of them, only Tyler, Cody, Noah, Trent, Mike, Dave, Ripper during S2 and Caleb's main character motivations for a season revolve or are at least greatly influenced by it. Compare that to nearly every girl in a romantic subplot's motivations immediately revolve around some guy they like.

Im going to pick Chase and Emma as an example because they're the worst example of this; Chase doesn't give two shits about Emma most of the time while Emma's character motives almost ENTIRELY revolve around him. FOR BOTH SEASONS, BY THE WAY. Granted this is an extreme example, mostly because the relationship is in canon toxic and bad (mostly for Emma), but i'll raise you the example of Duncan and Courtney in All Stars. (keep in mind! I haven't watched the season yet! This is all second hand!)

Both of them have a romantic relationship as an important plot thread throughout the season, with Duncan's decaying relationship with Gwen on one hand and Courtney's thing with Scott on the other. They do also have other plotlines during the season, with Duncan trying to figure out the secret of Mal and proving himself as a vilain while Courtney's thing is reconciling with Gwen and later, trying to win at all costs.

The main difference between the two? Duncan's plotline has to do with his actual character and he seemingly cares very little to not at all about his relationships with Gwen or Courtney in general (when him caring about his ex's opinion of him was LITERALLY ONE OF THE REASONS GWEN DUMPED HIM) while Courtney's plotline outside of her relationship with Scott is directly linked with the fallout of a previous romantic relationship. Hell her 'List' and complete disregard for anyone outside of Scott and her + Scott breaking up with her are direct factors that lead to her elimination. BUT NOT DUNCAN'S! Similar story in World Tour, except that Duncan's so much worse to Courtney in that season, like holy shit. And the narrative keeps vilainising Courtney and trying to redeem Duncan for some fucking reason? Im ending this ramble here so as to not derail this post even MORE, but you get my point.

There are some male character's whose whole arcs seem to revolve around their romantic relationships for a full season however. Tyler's relationship with Lindsay is a big motivator all throughout World Tour, and Trent's... everything during early TDA is directly linked to his relationship with Gwen. Hell both of Cody's season long arcs are related to him liking girls, with his endless pining for Gwen during TDI and the Sierra thing during World Tour. While he's still hitting on Gwen.

And, bingo; these male characters don't have much going on character wise outside of those relationships. Seriously, Trent and Cody's beef in Island is based on both of them liking Gwen, Tyler spends half of World Tour angsting about Lindsay forgetting him and doesn't do much outside of physical comedy and being one of Alejandro's minions after his girlfriend's elimination, and Cody's entire character motivation all throughout World Tour is to get the fuck away from Sierra.

HOWEVER. THESE ARE EXCEPTIONS, NOT THE RULE. I can only name three, and the only one who has this happen to him multiple seasons in a row is Cody, and him being a loser who thinks of himself as a lady's man is his whole character; the girls placed in similar situations, however, aren't based on that stereotype, and that's why it's a problem.

Also remember how i said that, like, 20 boys are involved in romance plots? Yeah that's not even half of them. While the girls with no romance plots can be counted on one hand. This isn't just a misogyny problem, it's a "society cannot imagine people being happy without romantic relationships" problem but i digress.

Anyways shoutouts to Priya and Millie's friendship (and their characters in general during S1) because neither of them fell into these pitfalls and they were both allowed to be characters in and of themselves. And be friends. And have interesting drama between them.

Thinking about how... despite being a team of (almost) exclusively girls, Team Amazon's overarching subplots all revolve around the affections of men.

Courtney and Gwen have their "love triangle" with Duncan...

Heather has her rivalry with Alejandro...

Sierra has her obsession with Cody...

Why can't these girls have plotlines and character motivations that aren't based around men?

[chirpsythismorning]

Lets talk about Appendix #7

I won't be the first (nor the last) to admit that I’ve only ever paid super close attention to the Russia scenes during my major s4 rewatches (like 4x total). Those just don’t tend to be the scenes I rewatch looking for Easter eggs as regularly as I do with others. Though, I can say confidently now that this will not be the case anymore.

As I’ve said recently, the scenes that come off as unnecessary filler, are likely the ones hiding something deeper underneath the surface. Otherwise, why put any time into scenes that have no importance, beyond just to fill the running time? Especially in s4 when the episodes were really long and they could have easily cut out scenes if they weren't that important to the overall plot.

The reason they do this is because they can rest comfortably knowing that a vast majority of the audience will overlook these scenes, even call them pointless and boring (and they can laugh knowing they couldn't be more wrong). A vast majority of fans felt that way about the Russia plot, but even the Cali plot had a decent amount of viewers saying they were worthless all season with no importance to the overall story. And we all know that wasn’t actually the case. And so why would that be any different for the Russia plot?

And this scene right here, which I completely forgot existed (so pardon me if someone has talked about this before, because I've never seen any discourse on it), I only just remembered existed because of the Piggyback script dropping for the Emmy's.

I just want to preface that I'm being so so serious right now when I say this scene is very incriminating for Mike. Even down to the way it ends. It’s bad.

And by bad I mean holy shit they are sick for potentially hiding the truth in plain sight.

For context, in this scene, Yuri represents Mike & let’s say Dmitri represents the skeptical majority, who have been confused by Mike’s behavior for the last two seasons.

A lot to unpack here.

But first I want to give a disclaimer that Yuri is not literally Mike, nor are ALL of Yuri’s scenes meant to be about Mike.

It just so happens that Mike has a unique trend of his POV being missing from the overarching narrative. And how they play with that sometimes, is by strategically displaying his POV through other characters.

You might think I'm crazy, but this has happened quite a bit. The most well recognized example of this would be with Hopper at the end of s3 with the letter.

A less well known example would be with Argyle in s4. Again not all the time, but there are a couple specific moments that come to mind, where it feels like they are hinting at Mike’s inner feelings, by having Argyle display things Mike cannot express to the audience yet.

I always thought it was weird they decided to put Mike and Argyle in almost identical hats in the airport scene. Though, it makes a lot more sense when you see Argyle call him a shitty knock off, only to watch the whole group walking through the airport, with Mike to the left of El and Argyle to the left of Will.

Mike may be standing beside El with them looking like a happy couple, but he’s actually distracted and hyperfocused on Will. And so how they reference that, is by placing Argyle standing close beside Will, sort of mirroring the blocking of Mike and El. In Argyle’s case, he is not putting on a fake smile, instead he looks almost emotionless about what's unfolding. The blocking there definitely feels intentional, as it could be the writers way of showing us where Mike's head is truly at, aka focused on Will.

The other major example I can think of (there's not too many from what I've seen, but these two definitely stand out) is at the end of s4 when the boys arrive at Nina to rescue El. We've talked about how the explosion behind Mike as he was looking between El and Will, is representative of the extreme mix of emotions he is feeling at that moment. But no one has ever talked about Argyle's reaction in that scene. Knowing what the explosion represents, I think we should consider what Argyle’s reaction to the explosion itself might represent as well.

First, Argyle interferes with the Milkvan reunion, standing in the frame behind Mike, with his hands on his head looking at the fire blazing with stress.

But it gets even more dramatic than that, when El and Will are hugging, that's when Argyle really starts freaking out, OH SHIT AW SHIT, pacing back and forth.

By doing stuff like this, they can hide hidden meanings. It also just makes it a whole lot easier to come up with ideas for scenes. Because when they have a big component that is underneath the surface, they can build anything around that, as opposed to coming up with a bunch of ideas fresh on the spot, without any reason for it.

Which is why, tbh whenever I hear someone say it's not that deep, when referring to basic filming techniques of playing with POV, I'm just sitting there thinking, do these people not know how much easier it is for artists, when it is that deep? It’s sooo much easier (and gratifying).

But back to this scene with Yuri and Dmitri.

Yuri seems to be doing a lot also while doing very little reminds me a lot of Mike's method of boyfriendism at the start of 4x02. He brings El flowers, he's got a whole inspired Cali fit, he's feening happiness the whole time, holding her hand and skating together. He's basically giving off this vibe that he's going above and beyond, when really, we know that despite all those little things, he's not doing the one thing El wants him to do, which is to say I love you.

This scene in the piggyback script initially stood out to me because of the word stalling. And this is because whenever I talk about Mike’s behavior in s3, but especially in s4, with him repeatedly putting off saying I love you to El numerous timed, I often use the word stalling to describe it.

In his letters, he avoids it. In the flowers, he avoids it on the note. When she confronts him during their fight, he deflects, and makes a point to struggle using the word care instead. Even when she's literally crying he still can't muster it. When she's getting taken by the cops, he still doesn't think to say it, even now when things are so bad and it might have given her at least some comfort. When they're separated Mike, gets reassurance from Will that he can just say it to her when they reunite, though Mike doesn't look too excited about saying it. Then not even a day later (during the Letter to Willy scene), Mike tells Will he didn't know what to say to El, even though we all know it only would have only required those 3 famous words... And then him and El are reuniting and he still doesn't say it. And then they're in surfer boy and they get interrupted, but tbh the lead up to it felt super disingenuous anyways, with him looking like he was about to say something out of obligation and not because he wanted to say it. And then the literal moment that she is choking, he stalls, until Will encourages him, and then even still then, they make a point to put dramatic beat right before, and only THEN is that when Mike finally says it.! (And all of that isn’t even including the stalling he does in s3).

Basically, Mike is the king of stalling, but especially in s4 and the Piggyback specifically, bc stalling is what has led to this grand moment of Mike quite literally having no option to stall anymore.

And so stalling being used in this conversation with Yuri and Dmitri instantly peaked my interest. I barely remembered the scene from the show and yet the instant I did, I just knew what was about to go down was something related to Mike, that we wouldn't otherwise get insight on bc we don't have his POV right now.

In contrast to the episode, the script has Yuri admitting to stalling. He doesn't seem to have remorse about it at first, he actually seems kind of like he's willing to admit it because it's the truth. Then we get a Ronald Reagan mention from Yuri, followed by him spitting with disgust, which was not included in the final cut... still sort of an off moment, considering the very few Reagan mentions we've gotten in the series, it's been through the presidential campaign sign in front of the Wheeler's house in s2 most.

But now, this is where it starts to get a little scary in terms of what Mike could be thinking. I don't know how I feel about it because it's a scary concept.

You saw it with your own eyes. You know it to be true. And yet you continue to play tricks.

This could mean one of two things, or maybe even a mix of both...

It could mean that Mike knows El doesn't need him despite her begging for him to say the words I love you (he saw it with his own eyes?), but he isn't willing to accept it. He knows his feelings deep down will never change (he doesn’t love El), making his and El's separation inevitable (also reminds me of the suicide mission comment from Yuri...). He is fixated on this idea of her needing him and if not, losing her all together, instead of what El was actually upset about, which was not being loved.

Or it could (also) mean Mike understood Will in the van. He saw it with his own eyes aka the painting, he knew it was apparently for a girl Will liked, but it ended up actually being for him. And he seemed very happy about this as a revelation, up until Will mentioned it was actually from El. Not only that, but what followed was Will monologuing about feelings that matched closer to what Mike and Will had went through over the past year, not him and El. And so Mike realizes in this moment that Will does return his feelings for him, but he isn't willing to confront it aka he chooses to play tricks instead. He saw Will crying, yet he didn't confront it nor comfort him, and I think it’s at the very least bc Will crying that hard would have definitely caused Mike to start crying himself.

I also want to add that I think supports this sort of unraveling of Mike having different assumptions about the painting at different times. Because it appears in the hospital scene with Max, based on the blocking of Will, Mike, and El according to the painting on the wall in the background, that before this moment, he may very well have assumed the painting was from Will. But upon finding out El saving Max was a miracle, the painting shifts and is suddenly behind El.

I think that’s the main issue with deciding definitely one way or another how Mike interprets what’s going down. Because arguably, his feelings about the situation could actually be evolving based on the events around him unfolding.

Now let’s move on to the Peanut Butter Smuggler line. They use this to sort of make a reference to a past version of Yuri who was revered, and irrefutably considered a hero by many’ aka the mainstream ‘I miss s1-2 Mike Wheeler’ core.

And last but definitely, almost certainly not least, they show us Yuri reaching in his coat's inner chest pocket, to pull out the reason for the issue that was causing the stalling…

And that in the context of lettergate and even pocketgate, is pretty insane.

I also noticed a lot of scenes end with 'as...' in the scripts, as it's sort of their way to emulate the smooth transitions between scenes in words. While the scene directly after this is of Max and Lucas, the scene directly after that is Mike and El in Surfer Boy, right before they eat the pineapple pizza.

'Uncertain as...' Uncertain as who?!?!?! Max uncertain about the plan she herself insisted they do? Perhaps. Or what about Mike who is very much uncertain in all of his stalling glory, not even two scenes later, after they literally just acknowledged Yuri's stalling…

A lot of the pieces are there for this to play out, so I don't really think it's a reach anymore when you really start to add it all up.

Letter to Willy is a major proof that this is important. Although Mike ‘We’ve had it this whole time’ Wheeler was referring to a pen in that moment, the pen also came from secret hero agent man’s pocket, with the number (answer) being hidden inside, and with Mike’s shirt being off in that scene, though still in the frame in the right corner.

And then there’s the whole transition from Mike in Hawkins to the mailmain in Lenora in 4x01, DONT you worry Mrs Byers, it’s coming!!

If you want to know what I think personally. I don't know....

I do feel like what would make it super easy for everyone to figure out what's going on with Mike, is for us to finally read a letter from him, and with it ending with love Mike... Like it would just be that easy. Literally all of the contents could even be written off as a friend missing his friend platonically and really struggling bc he can't reach him, with him opening up about things that we already suspected, but that he hasn't said out loud. And then by simply ending it with love Mike, the case would be closed.

It would also perhaps explain Mike's inablity to write love to El in their letters. You’d think there had to have been something that made him overthink not doing that in the first place? And arguably, him having done it for Will when he tried to write a letter(s) to him, only to end it with love, followed by panicking and making the choice to never write Will a letter and instead focus on sending them to El (bc she’s his gf) it sort of starts to add up.

I also think I have a theory for when this letter will come into play in s5.

In the flashback of Suzie getting her computer taken by her dad, the last shot is of her night stand, which has a letter from Dustin, with a watch laying on top of it, also accompanied by an alarm clock that reads 5:02… I think it’s possible we could get lettergate being addressed as early as the second episode of s5. And with all the time/clock imagery surrounding it, there’s a good chance the cliffhanger of that episode could send us straight to the time jump…

Just a theory for now based on a lot of piling evidence. But it’s all very incriminating for Mike…

[love-byers]

🚨CALLING ALL BYLER TRUTHERS THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!!🚨

i literally have not posted in months because i've been EXTREMELY busy preparing for college, but things have calmed down a bit so i'm making time for some good old byler

now i don't know how many of you were involved in byler twt in august-september of 2022 but there were a couple of huge theories that are still talked about today

the ones i'm gonna be talking about in this post are:

birthday gate

will byers/harry potter parallel

will and mike teaming up in s5 & getting stuck in the upside down

if you don't know what birthday gate is, you've been living under a rock, but to summarize:

in s4 when el is being bullied by angela and the other kids at the skating rink, there's brief clips of the scene through a retro handheld camera with the date in the corner. the date in that scene is march 22nd, 1986.

march 22nd is wills birthday. we know that because in s2 when will is possessed by the mike flayer, joyce attempts to bring him back by asking him if he knows what march 22nd is; his birthday.

that would mean that the day when mike, will, and el go the roller rink is will's birthday—and no body, not even joyce or jonathan, mention it. the duffers said that it was an accident and they haven't watched s2 in years. this is complete horseshit. there are several direct references to s2 in s4, such as max saying "that's presumptuous of you" to lucas just like she did in s2. also,

idk about you but REALLY seems like they're teasing us about his birthday not really being forgotten.

there's several other theories about what this means but the most popular is that vecna has taken the other's memories about will to target him and make him feel like no one cares about him. all of vecna's victims are carrying some sort of trauma, and he can only target them when they're emotionally vulnerable. why is he targeting will? that's a whole nother rabbit hole.

this is where the harry potter theory becomes relevant.

i don't know where the picture is but the duffers posted their inspo board for s4 and there's a shit load of movies and tv shows, including harry potter and the chamber of secrets.

there's a shit ton of parallels that i won't get into, except these:

(all of these harry potter plot points are in both the book and the movie)

in chapter one of chamber of secrets, harry is sad and angry because it's his 12th birthday and no one remembered. the dursley's have never acknowledged his birthday, but he expected ron and hermione, his new best friends, to send him letters like they promised, but they haven't. not only did he get none on his birthday, he's gotten none all summer.

sound familiar?

if birthdaygate is true, this is an obvious parallel. will's birthday was also forgotten and it makes him sad. however, in chamber of secrets, it's revealed by dobby that ron and hermione have been sending letters all summer—but dobby stole them so that harry would think no one liked him and he wouldn't go back to hogwarts. some people think that vecna could be paralleling dobby as he took the others memories of wills birthday. but since i'm a byler loser, i wanna talk about this: there's another theory that mike was actually trying to call will awhile they were apart, but the phone was always on hold because of joyce's telemarketing job. wills thinks mike doesn't care about him, but mike was really trying to reach him the whole time. i made a post about this that's pinned on my account, feel free to read and come back

there was another theory on byler twt/tiktok that will and jonathan will move into the wheeler's basement since they're back in hawkins with no house. this was just supposed to be a fun 'what if', but i realized that this could also parallel chamber of secrets.

ron weasley realizes that something must be wrong since harry hasn't written back all summer. he and his brothers take their dads enchanted flying car to rescue harry from the dursley's. after that, harry stays with the weasley's for the rest of the summer. in the movie it's only like a day or two, but in the books it's about a month. if will byers moves into mike wheeler's basement i'm going to lose my shit.

here's where it gets fucking crazy

when september first hits in the camber of secrets, harry and the weasleys go to king's cross train station to go to platform 9 3/4 where the hogwarts express is waiting. ron's parents and siblings go through first, then harry and ron. well, ron and harrry try, but they just run into the wall. the platform is closed and they're stuck on the other side.

HELLO???????? WILL AND MIKE ARE GOING TO BE STUCK IN THE UPSIDE DOWN FUCKING CONFIRMED

ron and harry stupidly decide to take the flying car to get to school instead and catch up with the train, which ends in a bit of a disaster (they crash into the womping willow).

this could play out in s5 in a lot of different ways, but here's my theory

maybe all of the gang will be in the upside down for some reason and mike and will are left behind. this is really interesting if vecna is actually paralleling dobby, because dobby is the one who closed off the platform. there's a theory that vecna is targeting mike as well because he knows mike makes will the happiest. maybe he traps them both in the upside down to take out mike first. or maybe, like dobby, mike (ron) is trapped by accident. i also think it makes sense that mike and will being in the upside down would parallel ron and harry flying next to the train. in stranger things we all know that the upside down looks like hawkins, but isn't. there are several times that we see characters in the upside down communicate and work together with characters in the real world.

do you see what i mean about it just making sense? mike and will in the UD working together with the others in the real world to get to the same place or goal, just like ron and harry got to hogwarts with the others on the train, just in a different way.

anyways i'm losing my fucking mind byler is endgame

also, the duffers are rarry shippers CONFIRMED

[byler-4-life]

Okay I did it, lol. I spent way too much time on this, don't let it flop. Here's the evidence I could find both for against the Will's Birthday theory. Apologies for the length.

Simplest Explanation first.

THE DUFFERS AND EVERY SINGLE WRITER, CREW, AND CAST MEMBER FORGOT WILL'S BIRTHDAY:

The evidence for this point of view is pretty straightforward. First, the Duffers themselves, in two separate interviews, one in a article and another that was a sit-down video interview, said they simply forgot. They apologized profusely to fans, and to the character of Will Byers himself. In the second interview, they mentioned that they had received a master document of all important dates from a super-fan, so this wouldn't happen again. They confirmed they were likely going to go back and change the birthday to May 22nd, though...they haven't done so as of yet.

Secondly, it's pretty farfetched that every in-universe character completely and totally forgot Will's birthday. Even if they did have other shit they were dealing with. But really. You think Joyce is forgetting Will's birthday? Or Jonathan? Mike, maybe, for reasons I'll get into later. But still probably not. There's just not an explanation that makes sense to me, which is why I still kind of believe it was the Duffers mistake. However...

THE DUFFERS ARE LYING AND HAVE DROPPED EASTER EGGS THROUGHOUT THE SHOW AND OTHER PLACES TO HINT AT THIS:

Okay, so there's more in terms of sheer number of evidence for this, but it's not all compelling. There's not a definitive smoking gun. Just a bunch of small things, that might add up into something bigger.

So first under this is...what are the chances this was an accident? Like that's extremely bad luck for this day to be chosen by happenstance. 1 out of 365 days? That's 0.27%. Not even a full percentage point.

Next is...there's not a lot of dates to keep track of in Stranger Things. You're telling me that a whole room of writers, both of the Duffers, Shawn Levy, and the entire cast didn't remember this particular one? Possible I guess, but man. For a show that stresses the details like this one, it would be very disappointing.

So, I mentioned the interviews up top. This was from the first interview they did, when they were initially asked about it back on June 2nd:

RD and MD stand for Ross Duffer and Matt Duffer, and EXCUSE ME? "How do you want to respond to this?" I found this really curious, because if you forgot the birthday as the creators, isn't there only really one way to respond to this? That's a little suspicious. Was he asking Matt if they should reveal it is a plot point or not?

Next, we have two instances where forgetting Will's birthday has apparently already been a problem in the past, so would they really forget it again?

First we have this tweet from 2020, where someone on Twitter called out the Stranger Things Writers account for not acknowledging Will's birthday which had just passed in the real world:

You can see this is dated March 24, two days after Will's birthday. The D&D line was obviously related to Season 3 where Will wanted to play and no one else did. But the fact that they acknowledged a birthday being forgotten, and it just happened to be Will's, well...

Next instance is from the in-show universe. Creds to @beaulesbian for this post. Below we can see what looks to be some sort of card hung up in Will's room saying "forgot your birthday". It is present in S1 (first pic) and S2 (second pic):

The card appears to be cartoonish/juvenile, maybe coming from another member of the Party. As you can see, this is adding up to a lot of coincidences around Will's birthday being forgotten, both in and outside of the show. But wait, there's more!

We have two examples of dialogue from Season 4 having to do with forgotten birthdays in general. First is Murray, trying to get Joyce out of the motel so they're not late to meet the Russian smuggler:

Then we have Mike's convo with Suzie, trying to convince her they're trying to win a video game system for Dustin's birthday:

The interesting thing here is that you can see the puzzled look on Mike's face as he trails off, clearly not knowing what Dustin's birthday is off the top of his head. This correlates with the "I forgot your birthday" card referenced above. Maybe Mike is really bad with birthdays?

So that's it. If you believe the second set of evidence, you just have to convince yourself that Joyce was so shook about Hopper being alive, Jonathan was perma-stoned/so worried about his relationship with Nancy/college decisions, and Mike was so busy pretending to be straight being caught up with El, that they all forgot about Will's birthday.

If you made it this far, thanks, and let me know what side you're coming down on.

[charmixpower]

Issue One: The Castle

I love how excited Vanessa is to see a fairy school, she's so down for this fairy stuff 🧚‍♀️✨

"They do that sometimes." What does this mean?? Like some barriers just inherently keep magic-less out without even being programmed to do that?? Wild

Also the collective term for magic users in the comics is "Magicians" which is interesting. Like you have your technicians, your politicians, and of course your magicians. Important jobs in the magical dimension

I definitely like magus and magi more bc it sounds fancier for my own stuff but I'm now going to call the Winx magicians in canon thank you

The implication being that Mike kept this phone on him the entire time instead of giving it to her before they left to the magic dimension

Tho this does contribute to why Bloom was so upset about what Tecna said to her, her dad literally just got her this phone

The fact that he still has his face is so fucking creepy

According to the comics, Alfea is a five year school

Which, according to my research (aka texting my Italian friends) is normal in Italy

Also why is talking to them like their freshmen??? Italian freshmen are 14, they're 16. They've cut out two of those years already

Because the Winx are 16, that means Bloom skipped two whole years of magic school

They're probably on intermediate spells at this point no wonder she struggles so much in the first ep

Tbh she should be struggling more

Alfea is the only fairy school in Magix, CT is likely the only witch school, idk about RF bc is it really even a magic school??

The implications of how big the magical population is compared to the rest of the dimension is insane if the entire magical population of one planet can fit into two schools

Six billion, which was the population of earth in 2000, is gonna be our stand in for how many people are on Magix

Alfea is a boarding highschool, and at most schools like that hold about ~1200 students, usually they only hold about 300-400 students

If we were to put the number of Alfea students at 1200, the fairy population of individual planets (bc in later seasons we only see one magic school per planet too) is about .00002% of six billion

And pretending that Wizards, Witches and Faries are just as common as each other for a moment, that would make the magician population per planet .00006%

Or per every 6 billion people there are 3600 magicians

And that's at most

You are more likely to win the lottery because that's 1% of 292.2 million

This one line of dialogue has so many implications to it omggg

I love how Bloom is excited to see some witches and Stella is like "Woah woah woah there, hold your fucking horses. Witches are to be avoided and disliked." No other place is the division between witches and faires seemed more like a very weird magic caste system

I wonder what would have happened to Bloom if she presented as a witch instead of a fairy... unlikely because Bloom doesn't have a negative bone in her body, but she and Mirta could become besties

The Trix would also have a much easier time manipulating her...rip Bloom

You know I just realized

Princess Stella di Solaria gets a room for herself, but Princess Varanda di Callisto doesn't. This is also true in the show, which sorta calls into question the idea that Stella has no roommate just because she's a princess

I love how Tecna's dialogue here comes off "She left because she's offended by me." Sounds like something that would come out of an extremely annoying person's mouth but Tecna means it literally

I love her

I really like how the comics use the idea that Stella can't transform without her ring by having people fighting with her stop her from using it

It's a really good and compelling way to use that piece of plot that the show only remembered when it wanted too

Also Stella saying Domino strengthens the connection between the sword ring and Domino but it's very very weird

Where is the favorite??? Where is the drama??? These are just three nomral ass bitches, and one is wearing a collared crop top

-10/10 not impressed

Seeing them do magical battles without transforming is so fucking weird

It's like the uncanny valley for Winx, they aren't supposed to be doing that

In this house we hate comics Griselda

Seriously what the fuck is this dialogue, fucking YIKES