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i think we should add media literacy to the water supply

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With the Byler fandom rejuvenating -- along with hatred for Noah rearing up once again-- I wanted to put some thoughts out there about THIS fandom and my own personal feelings of disappointment.

It's quite weird to me that so many Bylers continue to publically crap on/use abusive language toward Noah while stanning Will Byers, their precious baby boy. I just came across a post earlier today that had someone expressing their sadness that Will Byers was getting hate post-teaser because of his actor, and while it was ok that Noah Schnapp, the real human being, was receiving this harassment, hating Will (a fictional character) was simply unfair. I want to shake these people and remind them-- if Byler receives negative backlash, Noah, the REAL gay young person, will be receiving the brunt of that hatred and you know that.

I have no feelings toward those who don't care to support any particular actor for political reasons, but I find it very offputting when people try and dismiss Noah's contribution to Will Byers, which was informed by his very real experiences coming of age and to terms with his identity. Those who try and remove Noah from Will Byers, or fancast some other (usually non-Jewish lol) actor as Will-- it feels extremely gross to me. Noah's formative years from 10-18 were on this show, and he IS Will Byers, whether you like it or not. No one else could do it like he does.

Don't even get me started on those of you who censor him out of photos posted by people who clearly care for him and want him around despite your coping and seething! And then will turn around and use toddler/young child (pre-Stranger Things) photos of him for Will Byers fan posts--pictures which were probably taken by his family! Do they not see how weird and violating that is? Some people's cognitive dissonance even goes so far that they fantasize about or sexualize the character Noah plays while speaking unkindly or abusively about him online. It's not just unkind, it's dehumanizing.

All this to say, I feel so much pity for child actors/entertainers growing up under this intense social media scrutiny. Turns out few are interested in a young person's right to privately deconstruct a belief system they grew up with and wish to instead cast stones and act morally superior. Use the pretense of social justice to be hateful and hypocritical. Noah seems, while I don't actually know him, to be a kind, thoughtful and grateful young man, and I hope to see him rise above the campaign of abusive harassment he's been on the receiving end of for the last two years.

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Y'all lying about Noah's acting skills is pretty pathetic, actually! lmfao you can not like someone and not want to give to young people the opportunity to grow how much you want, but saying a bunch of bullshit about OBJECTIVE things is just ridiculous 😂

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Reading all the hate on Noah on twitter is sickening me, people have no concept of measure even when someone is genuine in their apology and they clearly were just ignorant and had a distorted definition of a term that was heavily propaganded to the Jewish communities as something with a different meaning than what the people that created it actually did... plus I open your profiles and more than half of you is actually deadass stanning some celebrity that said the same exact things and is not even trying to deconstruct those ideas like Noah did, you have no coherence or backbone at all and while you're hoping to add another young body to the list of the dead, the politicians, the real soulless people of our society, are doing nothing... and you're focusing on a 20year old gay kid. the world has completely lost it in more than one way

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hi umh sorry for asking but im kinda ignorant about this, can you explain why you still support Noah? No hate im just curious cuz i only saw him with the stickers and I was confused...

I'll say it again, I'm not really a fan of anybody, I'm a fan of the characters more than anything else - but the situation and the stuff I've been reading about him is extremely vile, this level of harassment means actively trying to make him kill himself and I don't believe he deserves that because I don't believe he's "evil" as people online wants to depict him, you usually can see it when someone is a vile person that would deserve to be attacked and he is just not that

- While his statements did have problematic things in it in my opinion it was more because of ignorance than actual malice and he needed to be educated and not attacked like that

- He tried apologizing and clarifying what he meant with a video and I believe he's genuine in it

- I know for a fact he has friends who are pro Palestine and he has been learning from them and deconstructing

-The stickers were not made by him, he was used for clout by the people that you see in the video around him and in that period he was hanging out with a 30 year old man that was an actual Zionist from there and was influencing Noah + if you look up the Instagram page affiliated to the "Zionism is sexy" stickers, which I did when this happened and I have the screenshots saved in my pc, you'll find that in that page they were going on posting stuff saying that Zionism only meant that they wanted safety for Jewish people while also living in peace etc etc (which is propaganda!) so the whole problem is that there's a different perception of the MEANING of the word, they believed that meaning while not being aware of the real situation in the region and also believing all the lies that those people try to spread around. At that moment he was literally put in the middle and didn't react appropriately, but if you grow up surrounded by people trying to convince you of that you would probably be acting in the same way

- He stopped supporting Israel and is against what is happening in Gaza

- He donated money to Gazans multiple times in secret because he's not doing it only to be forgiven and didn't brag about it

- I know people who know him and have seen receipts of all of this btw

- I know things about his life that the public doesn't know and I will not share because it would be highly fucked up and evil to do that, but I do have compassion for him also because of this outside of the fact that he's just a kid to me and you should have compassion in general for people and not want them to kill themselves (especially when they are NOT actual trash humans. There are trash humans out there and I am not above wishing for their death, but Noah is not one of them)

- He had to start therapy to deal with all of this

- He was 19 years old and the world is not black and white, people that grow up with the influence of the propaganda are not guilty for believing it, especially when they're young because they're being preyed on by older people the majority of the time

- there's LOTS of people that don't give a fuck about it and are hating on him because they want easy likes not because they care about the genocide. People should start looking at themselves in the mirror and I can't stand the insane hypocrisy I've seen since this started.

Hating on him will not help anybody, and it's not "a call out" it's cruel harassment, suicide instigation, homophobic slurs, rape threats.

In general no one should support the amount of harassment and hate he has been getting because he did not do anything that makes him deserve that, being ignorant and staying neutral by wishing that both Palestinians and Israelis were safe in what you perceived as a conflict because you have a misunderstanding of what is going on because you grew up with people telling you that "it's complicated" and repeating the propaganda around you, doesn't make you a "genocidal maniac" it only makes you ignorant and people should want others to be educated if we want a better world... which he is doing in private for now

I've been on the other side of online harassment myself even if in a way smaller amount thankfully, but some people don't have my character and can't stand this type of pressure mentally, so he is choosing to stay private now with all of this, and honestly it was hard for me too some days it did make me upset that so many people misunderstood my character... so I can't even imagine what receiving the GIANT amount of hate and comments on his appearance and his character is doing to him mentally and I find this extremely fucked up so I don't want to just ignore it even if I could mind my business and be "more popular" like that, it's just morally wrong.

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Patrick and Sam both doing Actors on Actors for Variety…are the incest brothers getting those supporting actor Emmy noms?? 😭

I’d genuinely crack up if both of them did

Just so y’all know, Mike White submitted Full Moon Party (episode 5) for the best writing category…Saxloch you’ll always be famous lmaoo

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That moment in episode 5 where Lochlan lays down on the sand facing the sky, stomach exposed, legs open, while he’s basically convulsing and tripping on drugs (it almost looks like he’s laughing)…and it happens right after he caresses Saxon’s hair 1950’s femme fatale style and Saxon just has to look back and I swear there’s an expression that Patrick Schwarzenegger makes that’s basically Saxon going “uhhhh”. There’s a wonder there. Yes, he’s high out of his mind but he’s also admiring? Amazed?…there’s a smirk there.

What a fucked up moment. I swear it’s worse than the actual handjob.

Mike White literally had Lochlan act like some mildly evil temptress that entire episode 😭

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Lochlan is 100% gonna go full Bella Swann in New Moon and try the craziest shit so that Saxon fully goes back to him oh lord…this crazy ass character reading (I agree with him 😔)

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The Lochlan and Chelsea of it all…

I have to say that this isn’t so much an analysis as it is an observation/ pondering on what Mike White was trying to do when paralleling these two characters.

For me this all started after the finale when I read an Aimee Lou Wood quote about Chelsea and Rick’s relationship where she referred to Rick as “the religion Chelsea is subscribed to, and ultimately, the thing that gets her killed”.

I thought this was similar to how Sam Nivola had described Lochlan during this press tour, saying he’d go to any lengths necessary to be loved/foster a special connection in his life. (More on this later.)

And then I rewatched the show and boy, there’s a lot of little threads between Chelsea and Lochy, especially in relationship to their respective bonds to Rick and Saxon.

One of the first things that grabbed my attention is that both of them are sort of obsessed with the idea of fatalism (bad things happening). Chelsea is a deeply spiritual person and she spends the entire season saying she has a bad feeling about Rick’s fate, which ultimately turned out to be true.

Lochlan is not a spiritual person, this is in fact highlighted at the beginning of the season, but he’s the character Mike White chose to ominously warn his family of what’s coming for them. Lochlan’s obsession with tsunamis played a similar role in the narrative to Chelsea’s intuition.

Chelsea and Lochlan don’t interact a ton on the show, but she first approaches him in episode 4 while he’s doing magic tricks. Lochlan is referred to as “the little magician” by Chloe, and obviously this is an aspect of his chameleon/deceptive nature when it comes to adapting or shifting his personality according to who he’s around. Lochlan is all smoke and mirrors. But so is Chelsea. Aimee Lou Wood has mentioned in post finale interviews that Chelsea’s “happy go lucky” attitude and new age vibes are a bit of a front, a role she plays in hopes that it’s aptly complimentary to Rick’s personality. She’s hope, and happiness, and coolness, but she’s also a bit void inside because it’s well…a bit performative. I think aspects of this can be seen in how easily Chelsea accepts the batshit insanity that happens around her: Chloe’s crazy comments, the incest situation, Rick’s issues. Lochlan does this too, he tends to go with the flow of others.

This is not me saying they’re pushovers, they’re not, but they try to be peacekeepers, often at their own detriment.

I think both of them are deeply lost people, but Chelsea just does a great job at pretending she’s not. Above anything else, they’re both desperate for connection and to be loved, and unfortunately for them, they’ve hitched their fates/set their sights on emotionally unavailable people.

There’s a delicious contrast in episode 5 by having Chelsea abstain from the debauchery of the Full Moon Party because she’s loyal to Rick, and that’s what he would want, while Lochlan fully lets loose and pushes things to the extreme, because that’s what he believes Saxon wants of him.

This becomes a bit amusing when you throw in Saxon’s attempts at sleeping with Chelsea, despite her constantly shooting him down.

This moment of Saxon getting Chelsea a drink (“pink for the lady”), while she completely ignores him and Lochlan snatches the drink for himself. Very subtle Mike White…

Another moment, but this one is actually just painful, happens in Episode 6, while Chelsea talks to Rick on the phone after the Full Moon Party.

Chelsea is chastising Rick for not saying “I love you” to her properly (he never does in fact, and she dies without hearing it), meanwhile the camera also focuses on Lochlan alone on the boat. Given what happened between Lochlan and Saxon the night before, choosing to focus on him during this moment is pretty devastating. And again, it’s another instance showing how desperate him and Chelsea are for love and connection.

And then we get to episode 8…

Chelsea drops this line to Saxon, but based on what we see later on in this episode, I’m more inclined to believe that this actually applies to her and Lochlan.

This next scene was deleted, but originally, Lochlan has a dream in episode 8 where he sees Saxon dead out by the pool with vomit all over his face. Basically, Lochlan dreamt of Saxon being poisoned. According to Patrick Schwarzenegger’s description of the scene, it’s this nightmare that prompts Lochlan to go to the blender in the morning and make a protein shake. Sam Nivola has also mentioned that Lochlan made the shake because he wanted to feel close to his brother.

And then Lochlan basically fucking dies. His devotion and love for his brother leads him to his almost death.

“It’s okay for you to worship me, but don’t like WORSHIP me…”

But he does, because just like Chelsea with Rick, this is the religion Lochlan subscribes to.

I think it’s very interesting that episode 8 was supposed to include two fake out scenes of Lochlan and Saxon dead (one a near-death and one a dream) especially because it would’ve happened right before Chelsea and Rick actually die.

And the circumstances of Chelsea’s death are eerily similar to Lochlan’s near one. Rick tells her to go away, to leave him, but she decides to follow him and gets caught in the cross fire, and that’s it. It is also her love and devotion for him that kills her.

I have so many feelings about these moments. The way they both quietly die, the way their loved ones don’t notice until a bit later. The way they’re literally shot in the exact same way.

And of course, the way that once Chelsea and Rick finally make it back to the water (death) is when Lochlan opens his eyes and basically comes back to life. I don’t think that scene was shot that way just for aesthetic purposes, which leads me to believe it’s a nod to Chelsea’s “groups of people coming together to form a divine plan” comment.

Something to be said for characters that are so desperate for love, attention, and care that they’re willing to modify and uproot their inner self in order to satisfy the people they love, because it is through that purpose only that they themselves can be satisfied. It just so happens that more often than not, that love ends up being wasted or not fully reciprocated.

I do feel like I have to clarify that I don’t think Saxon is as bad/doomed as Rick. There’s a reason Saxon didn’t die, he IS capable of change, while Rick was not…but the parallels are there lol.

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I’m crying HBO knows who pays the bills…the official MAX, HBO, and White Lotus accounts keep posting Saxloch scenes on all their social media since the show ended 😭…and the comments are all people saying they wanna see more of them and they need a Ratliff family spin off lmaooo

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Tell me why I was casually listening to music and Inbred by Ethel Cain started playing and I literally had to pause the song and look up the lyrics because…this is literally Lochlan and Saxon like??? 😭

Obviously I know the context of the song is completely different but I have White Lotus brain rot rn and god help me if this isn’t Lochlan’s POV of this whole thing I mean…

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Sarah Catherine filming, Jason and Patrick busting out the white boy moves, Sam giggling and appearing mid video wrapped in a towel lmaooo….

This makes me kind of emotional because I remember how Jason said in an interview that when he first got to Thailand they put him in a beautiful villa all by himself and his wife would call him and he’d tell her it was beautiful, but he was actually very lonely. And then his on screen kids “adopted” him and started showing up to the villa every day 😭

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a normal family.

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Currently cooking up a Lochlan and Chelsea being somewhat connected by the narrative post, and it’s also making me see the obvious Lochlan/Saxon and Chelsea/Rick parallels….well.

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Sam’s new photoshoot for VMan and wow…these are incredibly devastating pictures.

I think Lochy will be just fine back home if he gets into modeling. AU anyone? 😂

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Just perfect. No notes…