#stranger things patterns

[idksjdhshdhd]

WAIT I KINDA SEE A PATTERN!

So in s1 when Mike and El kissed in the last episode and then when El was defeating the Demogorgon and said “Goodbye, Mike.” WHICH WAS KINDA LIKE A BREAKUP I THINK??

And then in s3 there was the full on moldymilk break up like “I DUMP UR ASS!” Which was literally a breakup…

And then in s5 they’re gonna break up because Mike and El always seem to break up on seasons with odd numbers and be either separated or unstable in even-numbered seasons and there won’t be a season 6 so therefore Mike and El won’t have a chance to get back together if they break up so that would let Byler happen and also Maya Hawke said that the episodes were like filming eight movies so that will give Byler time to happen plus they already have a ton of buildup, chemistry, and history together so basically… Mike and Eleven will almost certainly break up (and Eleven will probably break up with Mike if we’re following the previous breakup patterns) and so Eleven wouldn’t be too sad if they broke up since she did it (plus we saw in s3 that she was happier when she broke up with Mike) so basically Byler endgame? MY BYLER DOUBT IS GONE.

[gothmikewheeler]

just got up real close to the tv.., i think thats blood all down the front of his sweater

[whathehonestfuk]

Despite all the issues he has with sleeping there is 1 sure fire way to get Steve to fall asleep and fall asleep hard and the best part is he hasn't noticed it yet so he doesn't know when Robin and Eddie are conspiring to get him to knock the fuck out

The one sure fire way is a full stomach and some cuddles and he's out like a fucking light

[lalallalas-posts]

It's been noted that Mike can't even look straight ahead

And really, the only times he focuses on anything is when

[willbyersenthusiast]

BRINGING THIS BACK BECAUSE I FOUND SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN IN SEASON 2

okay so i just watched the crazy together scene and right before when Mike brought up El there was some music playing and it plays all throughout the rest of the scene with Mike and Will.

THEN, it cuts to Johnathan and Nancy. where Johnathan is bringing Nancy home from the party when she got drunk.

AND GUESS WHATS PLAYING.

the same. fucking. music.

they’re being compared and paralleled to byler. just like Mileven was compared to Nancy and Barb.

time to shitpost again!!

so because season 2 is my favorite season i’m rewatching it A G A I N and i noticed something.

so around 30-33 minutes in, Nancy and Steve are at the Hollands’ eating dinner with them and they still think Barb is alive. Nancy goes in the bathroom and starts crying and they’re playing some pretty emotional music right?

so the next clip is Mike gathering his toys to give to the garage sale and he comes across the dinosaur he showed El when she was living in the basement. and the same music is playing that was playing for Nancy.

so obviously Nancy and Barb’s relationship was very platonic but El and Mike’s wasn’t. so why are they comparing the two? it’s almost like they’re feeling the EXACT same thing about losing someone they care about…

[gayofthefae]

You know how I know Mike is queer?

These are the same person. Mike is an inherently caring, loving, and protective person. It's what Will called out in 4x08 and reminded us of with Mike's desire and practice in attempt to be a "hero" and be able to help the ones he loves.

But when El tells him she feels unloved by him, he doesn't comfort her. At all. He defends himself. He doesn't even say "yes I do". He says "I say it". Even when he's arguing that he loves her, he is defending himself, not comforting her. If he was comforting her he would have reacted to her crying at all. He doesn't. He just becomes increasingly desperate and escalates the tactics that are making her cry more.

Because the accusation is that important to him. Not many things could be so important to him that he would deprioritize her or taking care and protecting and comforting those he loves. He even does quite well at it at the start of the scene. We have PROOF that he is pretty stable these days with any sort of accusation or invalidation with how well he takes "you don't understand" and simply asks questions without any sort of offense. So he CAN take it. He takes it IN THIS CONVERSATION.

But when she says he doesn't love him, he stops the "they just don't know you". He stops the "don't say that about yourself, you're lovable," which is what this is really about for her. If he had said that even if he couldn't say it himself, it might have still helped a little bit: frame it as his own fault if he can't. But he couldn't do that. Instead, he went with how it reflected on HIM that he couldn't say it and defended himself AGAINST her. FOUGHT her on it.

There are few things that can make him fight a person. And they've all actually been pretty similar. They're all El:

"You're prioritizing El over Will"

"There is something off about your relationship with El"

"You're prioritizing El over [Will]"

"He's right that your and [El's] relationship wasn't a good one"

"Your and El's relationship wasn't a good one"

"You're prioritizing El over [Will]"

"You don't love [El]"

He is comforting. He is kind. He prioritizes others' comfort and safety consistently. He takes other accusations fairly lightly and focuses back onto the person making them and their emotions. And yet, what does he say in those instances and only those instances?

"SHUT. UP."

"You lying piece of shit. You're crazy!"

"It's not my fault you don't like girls!"

"He's just some crazy old man"

"You're conspiring against me!"

"We're friends! We're friends!"

"You're being ridiculous. What is this?"

People who say his character has gotten worse are stating it under the idea that he is always like this. The entire discovery so many people, including myself, had that he's queer was because we noticed that his outbursts were consistent. People think he's random and angry because they think the situations are random: Lucas, Hopper, Will, Max, El. But they're forgetting to note what each of those people questioned about him right before.

The biggest proof is that he doesn't ever talk like this outside of these situations. It's lighthearted debates and empathetic conversations.

Mike Wheeler is a kind person. If he said "You're being ridiculous. What is this?" it is not just because he's scared of vulnerability or commitment.

[procyoren]

Susie doodle in case she never shows up again

[wu-does-art]

Mike "if a hot man told me to reconsider my morals i would do it" wheeler

Vs.

Will "why did you skip our beloved friend's basketball game for a senior's dnd game" byers

bonus:

[greeninspired]

I’ve been really into crocheting lately and got that Stranger Things crochet kit.

I love the patterns in there but they sure aren’t easy! I just made El so far (the kit only comes with materials for El and the Demogorgon).

I totally did buy more materials to make more though (maybe I’ll make all of them).

I’m definitely excited to make Will though… he looks so cute!

[toseesoclearly]

El and Will: mirrored emotional journeys from opposite starting points

I keep seeing the idea invoked that either El or Will's arc is ultimately about independence. and while it's certainly true that the show includes both of their coming of ages so independence will be involved, I think it's more nuanced than that. and the overlap in how it's nuanced for their characters is another way Will and El are mirrors.

because of where they're each coming from, Will and El's "coming into their own" means that, yes, they will stand up to the supernatural threats they're facing (and the character development/thematic elements those supernatural threats are stand-ins for) - but also just as important is that they will actively seek out help and receive support from their friends and family along the way

Will hasn't had the opportunity to fight his own battles because the narrative consistently places him in a position where that's not possible for him. When the supernatural plotline in s1 and s2 hinges on him as the victim, he is rendered without real recourse or incapacitated pretty quickly. that means his friends and family have to step up and fight for him.

throughout s2-s4, you can see how the fact that he repeatedly has been placed in that disempowered position (which includes growing up in an abusive home pre-canon) has led to a pattern of behavior where Will almost always freezes or flees, and doesn’t fight.

that's understandable, and sometimes what he has to do to survive, but it means that even at points when he could have brought his problems to the group at an earlier point so they could work together to solve them, he pushes them down and avoids them (flees, hides, makes himself smaller).

El has similar issues accepting help, but it's coming from the opposite direction. the narrative places her in a position where she has the most power to counteract the supernatural threats faced by the group, so she takes on the most (or even sole) responsibility. (also a dynamic that started for her pre-canon, in the abusive environment she grew up in)

there's a reason El and Will are the two characters the Hawkins team in s4 specifically calls out as vital missing pieces...

...but even though El and Will are key players, if there's one thing Stranger Things values, it's working together as a team.

also realized for the first time El and Will are the only two characters mentioned by name here, okay then

[cypherheartnokey]

‘Miami Vice’ is a direct reference to the Vice Businesses specifically and, more broadly, to the Recurrent Stranger Things Theme™️ of Illusion, Luring & Deception.

Yes, one of my upcoming gigantic & unhinged theory posts is about this. 😊

And yes it does also have a connection to Hopper, to El, to Chance, to Will, & to many, many other things.

Don’t worry, I will try my best to squeeze it out soon & make it as structured/organized as humanly possible… 😅😭

if this was true:

my brain would be FREE from this bychance thing, like seriously Duffers, JASON CALLED HIM JED IN THE FIRST EPISODE FFS ...

but because THIS is true:

and THIS is also true:

and dior pointed me towards the 'girls flirting with will' pattern, so now my brain is like "oohhh I get it!!" AND ...

I GET THE FEELING THAT IN S5 ... BAM

Chance ✨becomes real ✨

EXCEPT "CHANCE" HAS BEEN A BOY ALL ALONG AND NOT A GIRL, LIKE MIKE FEARED ... HELP

can a math person calculate the odds of this being true bc I'm losing my mind this feels like some strange fanfic-theory hybrid ... manifestation theory hello?

*breaks the 4th wall* If the word 'Chance' was a) a continuity error or b) just a hint to guide our attention to the CONCEPT of 'chance' and not him as a LITERAL, REAL character, i need y'all paying for my therapy, Duffers

@cypherheartnokey tagging you bc you're the manifestation theory bychance person!!

[azureansys]

"it's not all (pro)endos" but somehow it's always (pro)endos

[ingravinoveritas]

Post something as a joke once, and sure, it's funny.

Post the same thing four times, and not only does it stop being funny, it feels like trying to say something. Except not the something most people think it is...

[gayofthefae]

Nothing, I'm just saying it's kind of suspicious that almost every time El cries over Mike it's because she experiences proof of him not loving her or moving on from her

But when Will cries about him it's consistently because of unconfirmed beliefs Will came up with himself

I'm just saying it's suspicious how when his girlfriend cries it's always because she found proof, however credible, that he doesn't love her but when the guy he "actually doesn't love" cries about the same thing, there's no basis.

It's just funny to me how they would only provide receipts for the thing that supposedly isn't true and give absolutely nothing for the thing that supposedly "obviously is"...

Also, it's funny, I felt inaccurate describing Will as "consistently" because he isn't written to be hurt by their relationship enough for an actual pattern to emerge, hmm...

But honestly this is how you prove shit and this is why we know shit. It isn't about how you were supposed to catch it already. It's about how suspicious it is that if he doesn't love El, there are lots of setups to point to to prove they've been writing the plot that way for years, but if he doesn't love Will, there's just about nothing besides an audience member's own heteronormativity on an individual basis and nothing the show provided.

As I've said, I went in believing Mike loved El and was disproven successfully. I then proceeded believing Mike loved Will and have yet to be. I was not a Byler when I was disproven. I was rooting for Mike and El, in fact. Information is still information. I still received it.

It's all about setups. If they set up only one plotline/payoff and did absolutely nothing for the other and those are the only two options, then we know what's gonna happen. It's that simple.

[thefreakandthehair]

@eddiemonth prompt, oct 12th: Soulmates | Eight - Sleeping at Last | Perceptive a/n: steddie, soulmates au (phillia + eros). eddie & jeff as platonic soulmates, stobin soulmates mentioned always. un-betaed because I’m challenging myself to write these in under an hour. read on ao3 | link to masterpost on ao3

Soulmates, Eddie scoffs to himself as he doodles in his notebook at the back of the coffee shop. Bullshit. 

He knows it’s actually not, that people walk around every day hand-in-hand with beautiful, swirling tattoos that grow in intricacy and detail the more time they spend with their soulmate. Most days, Eddie doesn’t mind that the simple snake design on the inside of his wrist never so much as slithers, but today? Today, he minds. 

Dating in the world of soulmates is challenging. He tries to just focus on how feels, on if the person sitting across from him is compatible with his lifestyle, on if there’s any kind of spark, but it’s inevitable that at some point, both he and his date look down at their wrists to find nothing. 

His coffee date had gone well enough but, like always, was a dead-end. How many paths can one person try before the destination seems moot? 

So he sits and scribbles in his notebook, hoping that perhaps staying in the coffee shop rather than returning home to the apartment he shares with Jeff will provide some inspiration. That tattoo, the one that’d started as a small star on his ankle, has grown into a whirling galaxy since moving in with Jeff– a philia connection if he’s ever seen one. But if his eros tattoo won’t build upon itself naturally, he’ll do it manually with a tattoo gun. 

It also helps that the barista is perhaps the most beautiful man Eddie’s ever laid eyes on, enough so that it’s… actually a little intimidating, if he’s being honest with himself. Intimidating to the point that Eddie’s yet to approach him for a refill since the girl who’d given him his first sugary abomination finished her shift. Besides, the mystery barista must’ve already found his soulmate. His entire left arm, from fingertip to at least his elbow, is covered in delicate, colorful designs that twist and wind about his skin, curling around each finger and looping gracefully up his arm.

I can still enjoy the view, he justifies to himself, taking a sip from his cup and remembering for the third time that it’s empty. 

He sighs and sets it back down, clearing his throat. It’s as good a time as any, he supposes, as he stands from his little corner table by the window and strolls across the room to the counter. 

“Hi, what can I get started for ya?” The barista asks, his name tag now visible and proclaiming Steve. 

“Uh,” he starts. “Salted caramel mocha, please?” 

Steve’s smile is bright and he leans on the counter, leveling it straight in Eddie’s direction. All Eddie wanted was a refill on his sweet treat disguised as coffee and instead, it feels as though he’s smacked in the head.

“Comin’ right up,” Steve replies, turning around to get his order going. “You’ve been sitting over there for a while, how’d that date go?” He asks with the confidence and familiarity of someone Eddie’s known his entire life. 

“Watching me, were you?” 

Steve grins over his shoulder, shrugging. “A little.” 

“I’m flattered. Well, I’m still here and they’re not so that oughta tell you everything.” 

Steve hums and turns back to the machine, finishing up his order. Eddie’s heart beats rhythmically, somehow slowing and quickening all at once and his lungs feel buoyed by something more powerful than his breath. When Steve faces him again and hands him his cup, exchanging it for the empty one in Eddie’s hand, they both freeze. 

Eddie’s snake begins to move. 

A clear, serpentine movement at the center as small, geometric lines begin to appear in the background. 

“Holy shit,” Eddie whispers, setting his full cup down so he doesn’t spill it. 

“Yeah, holy shit.” Steve places his other arm on the counter, the blank one, and Eddie sees that it’s not blank. There’s a small, barebones tree on his forearm whose leaves begin to blossom and shake, different shades of greens and oranges appearing before his eyes. 

“But– your other arm?” Eddie chokes out, eyes flickering between his own wrist, Steve’s forearm, and Steve’s other, fuller arm. 

“Philia. That’s Robin. But this one, this is eros.” Steve smiles again, matching the one Eddie can feel spreading across his own face as he looks up from his forearm. “I’m Steve.”

Steve smiles again, matching the one Eddie can feel spreading across his own face as he looks up from his forearm. Eddie looks in wonderment, searching for any sign of lie or trickery in Steve’s eyes and finds nothing but warmth and familiarity. 

“I’m Eddie.”

[evilbookworm]

i may actually learn how to do digital art just to draw mike and will as jinu and rumi.