formerprincewille

[formerprincewille]

the family dynamics in Squid Game 2 are so important to me

[formerprincewille]

me and every other dae-ho fan manifesting and demonstrating that he's not gonna die in season 3

[formerprincewille]

Many Milkvan fans don't actually like Mike. In fact, a good majority of them seem to get annoyed at Mike for how he treats and acts toward El, yet they still want Milkvan to be endgame. Why is that?

I think it's because they see Mike as being the only 'option' for El to have a romantic relationship within the remainder of the show. And they won't be satisfied without a romance line for El, because of course the female lead has to end up with someone 🙄 I think that's why they want Milkvan to last, in spite of their complaints about Milkvan's lack of development and despite their relationship steadily falling apart since S3.

If there was another option for El, I think they'd take it. But considering Lucas and Dustin are in relationships, and Will is her brother (and gay) Mike is the only possible option they can see for El.

I think they're actually quite worried about Byler happening, despite the front they put on. They worry if Byler happens that El will be alone, and they can't process an El who's single as being "happy" or fulfilling to her.

They conflate El being single = sad ending. And likewise El being with Mike (despite all their relationship issues) = happy ending. They claim to love El but can't see that her whole arc has been about her achieving independence and no longer being influenced by men in her life (Dr Brenner, Hopper, Mike) and defining who she is according to her own terms.

[formerprincewille]

ADULTS ★ HAPPY PRIDE MONTH

[formerprincewille]

What if your BOYFRIEND was getting DEPORTED and had to move back to CANADA so you decide to MARRY him but then you chicken out so your FRIEND says that SHE will marry him and then he decides to platonically marry your gay FRIEND instead and then you tell them to KISS but you immediately realize they are in LOVE and then the POWER goes OUT because your OTHER friend didn’t PAY the dumb ELECTRICAL BILL

[formerprincewille]

PANTON ★ SEASON 1

[formerprincewille]

Let's Talk About Noah Schnapp

In light of everything that's happened in the last few days—namely Netflix releasing its first teaser for Stranger Things Season 5—many are returning to Stranger Things spaces online here and elsewhere for the first time in months. Maybe years. So, it's time to have this conversation again, because many people weren't here when some of us were having this conversation in the lull between content; and we're due for an update.

Buckle up—this is going to be long. I intend for this to be a mega post on the whole situation in so far as I can cover it, with receipts and screenshots.

The Conversation Around Noah

Put bluntly—the vitriol around Noah Schnapp has become dangerously insane. It's been that way for 2 years, but the renewed spotlight on Stranger Things, especially as Noah is set to take center stage in a Will Byers-centric season, has revived some of the worst elements of the conversation.

"What do you mean?", you may be asking. Well, I think it might just be better to show you:

This is just a sampling. If I showed you every tweet — every post — every video I've seen with this rhetoric, I'd need another medium to do it. A tumblr blog alone couldn't contain it all. But I take it you see my point now.

How Did Things Get This Way?

There are people on this app and on #that app who will say this behavior/treatment is warranted. They'll tell you that Noah is a "genocide supporter." That he "cheered for the deaths of Palestinian babies." That he "celebrated as people were being murdered." But none of this is true.

As a reminder, this was what Noah actually said—his very first comments on the matter—right after the Hamas attack that happened on October 7, 2023:

Important to note:

"...we will hope and pray for safety, justice, liberation, and self determination in Palestine."

and

"...we will say a Jewish prayer for peace for all Israelis and Palestinians."

That is the literal antithesis of support for a genocide or the wholesale slaughter of anyone.

The very next thing to happen was the infamous "sticker video" about which the most lies have been told, so let's debunk them one by one:

He did not make the stickers.

He did not wear the stickers.

He did not hand out the stickers.

He did not hold up the stickers.

He did not even touch the stickers.

He did not post the video on any social anywhere.

I've posted a pair of screenshots here that give you the gist in lieu of the video itself, but you can Google the video and watch the entire thing to see that I'm telling the truth.

What actually happened was that Noah was taken to a restaurant by a pair of influencers who were his guides while on a school-sponsored trip to Israel. Both were significantly older than him, were responsible for the video in question, were the only ones in it (aside from the waitress) to actually touch the stickers in question... and yet? Noah bore the brunt of the hate that ensued. When the backlash came, they abandoned him and left him to the wolves. (And perhaps because of that, he no longer associates with either one of them, nor follows any related social media accounts—all of which he was required to follow in the first place as terms of going on the trip through his school.)

Noah had just come out of the closet earlier that year and was 18 years-old. He would only turn 19 years-old in the ensuing weeks.

He has addressed these events several times. Most famous was the TikTok that he made explaining his actual position (that he doesn't want anyone, Palestinian or Israeli, to die). Less famous were remarks he made to fans on Snapchat:

I'll post his remarks here for those who can't read the text:

Hey guys! I appreciate you reaching out. To give you context, I did not post this language or this sticker. I was at breakfast with friends, it happened to be an Israeli cafe, and a girl was handing out stickers. Someone photographed me and posted and tagged me. As you guys know better than most people, social media can be used however people want to use it. I understand the weight of the situation and take it very seriously. I have friends of friends who are currently being held hostage in Gaza right now. My friends kids were killed in the massacre at the Israeli music festival. Standing up against this terrorism is important to me and why I made my statement after the attack. As one of the only few Jewish people with a platform, I absolutely think it's important to share my message about hatred for Jews around the world right now. However, everyone online is obviously twisting everything and saying I support genocide and am Islamophobic which is obviously entirely false and never have I stated either of those things. Seeing what is happening to the innocent people in Palestine pains me so much and I wish it would stop. I fully support everyone in Palestine as I said in my post on Instagram. One of my best friends in college is Palestinian and we talk about this issue allllll the time and agree on most things. I think people on social media are just animalistic right now so it's hard to even chime in because they just rip me apart so now I'm staying out of it.

I'll let that stand on it's own. I think it provides the context behind his remarks, the situation with the video/stickers, and his actual views versus how social media portrays his views. It also explains why he hasn't said anything else in almost 2 years.

The key takeaway: He was speaking out against antisemitism and the attack on Jewish people on October 7 and he supports an end to what is happening in Gaza and fully supports Palestinians. He literally says it.

And this support, by the way, has been corroborated by his own actions and the word of mouth from Palestinian organizations he has contributed to:

What Has Happened Since?

It would be easier to list the things that haven't happened; but I'll try anyways:

Noah has been called antisemitic slurs; gay slurs and targeted with gay stereotypes; been compared to antisemitic caricatures; he's been threatened with death and had posts go viral fantasizing about his brutal murder; his family has been threatened; he's been threatened with rape and sexual abuse; there are massive accounts on Twitter that doxxed his location while he was filming Season 5—particularly targeting him when he was alone; he's been hacked, had personal pictures leaked; he's had lies spread about his treatment of his cast mates (all of whom have spoken out and said that they've loved him at some point since, making these claims unequivocally false.

Here are a few examples:

Again, I can only post a sample. I hope that sample is enough to get the message across.

It's hard to overstate how cataclysmic this has been. Obviously, he's recovered and healed a lot since the initial incident; but the damage done needs to be acknowledged. These attacks drove him into a dark place by his own admission. He talked about needing therapy on his (now deleted) private spam TikTok account. And they are starting up yet again.

And Then There's the Fandom

The Stranger Things fandom in the wake of all this has been an irritating place to be. Not just because of the above behavior but because of the blanket hypocrisy.

The shipping sub-fandoms in particular have been rank with antisemitism and homophobia—even the Byler fandom, which is predominantly queer. People have:

A) Taken pre-Stranger Things photos—like his baby pictures or pictures with his family—to use as part of their content, their profile pictures, their banners, their fan art, their fan edits, etc.—violating his and his family's privacy for "Will" all while calling him "ugly," a "fag," and lobbing the above-listed threats at him. B) Tried to recast him with a fan cast. These fan casts are almost never Jewish actors, you'll notice. In fact, there's someone on this very app that recast Will Byers as himself. This is gross and absurd. Will Byers is intrinsically tied to Noah Schnapp. Tied to his identities as a Jewish person and a gay man. Tied to his experiences being a character he helped bring to life during his formative years. C) Persist in stanning or support his cast mates despite the fact that they continue to associate with him. This, in particular, is gross hypocrisy. If you're going to be mad at Noah Schnapp for being in a restaurant around stickers you object to—guilt by proximity/association, in other words—those SAME standards should apply to his cast mates, who continue to hang out with him outside of work, state that they love him, and post him on their social medias. I have a whole post about that here.

Instead, the cast is continually afforded blanket immunity while he is singularly targeted for continued abuse and harassment.

It should give the fandom some pause that openly pro-Palestine actors like Maya Hawke not only continue to hang out with him; but in her Instagram story, even stated that she misses it (check the link above for a screenshot of said story). She wouldn't do that if she thought he somehow supported mass-murder; and she knows him way better than any one reading this blog. That goes for the rest of them, too.

They know him better than you. They know his moral compass and what he believes. And they haven't abandoned him and obviously aren't going to. So, are you going to stick to your guns and apply your anger evenly; or maybe consider that you don't have the full picture?

So, Why Care?

I get this in my Asks so often. "Why do you care?" "He's a celebrity." "He don't know you." "He's not your pookie."

I know. It's not about that.

Yes, full disclosure, I am obviously a fan of Noah's. Have been since the show started. And no it's not because I'm gay and he's gay or because he plays my favorite character in Stranger Things.

Like many of his fans, I've spent the last decade seeing his lives on Instagram and TikTok, seeing his fan interactions, watching his vlogs and videos, and I've come to respect him as a human being quite apart from Will Byers or his role as an actor. Fundamentally, I really believe he is a kind and caring human being. The word of mouth from everyone who knows or has met him bares this out—and, yes, he's even been kind to me in the few conversations we've had.

This is only one example from Instagram during The First Shadow premiere this year; but I think it encapsulates what I like about Noah most. He's kind. He goes out of his way to be kind. He does things he doesn't have to do, contractually or just in general, for the sake of being kind. He always has been.

He's also stood up for a plethora of causes. Black Lives Matters, trans rights, the rights of women. He's known to be his cast mates' biggest supporter—and they'll tell you as much, too.

But quite apart from my personal feelings about him and more importantly: this is wrong.

Antisemitism is wrong. Homophobia is wrong. Both kill. Still, to this day. As I am sitting in my kitchen writing this, the news just broke that an Indigenous gay man and a celebrity was shot dead in front of his husband—after having his home burned down and dogs burned alive—in the United States. Yesterday, news broke that a gathering of peaceful Jewish protesters (which included children and the elderly) demanding the release of hostages still held by Hamas was firebombed in Colorado. Luckily, they all survived, but six people were injured in that attack.

Violence and bigotry are ascendent everywhere right now. Minority communities are being targeted. Normalizing the behavior I've described and shown above kills marginalized people. Regardless of your feeling about Noah as a person or celebrity, normalizing the violent and bigoted remarks, tweets, and behavior towards him harms Jewish and LGBTQIA+ people—all of us.

And just as an example of that, I give you the treatment Finn Wolfhard is now receiving just for the "crime" of shaving his head and being deemed no longer conventionally attractive by the fandom:

Yes, the general audience found out about Finn's Jewish heritage and now he's a target, too.

And this fandom is at fault for it.

You cannot normalize bigotry towards one person and expect it to stay contained to that one person. It will always harm everyone in that community. Finn Wolfhard—or any other actor/actress—being your favorite is not going to spare him from the consequences of a discourse you started.

ALL antisemitism and ALL homophobia needs to be called out. The people who insist it's okay that they do that for ANY reason—regardless of if they themselves are LGBTQIA+ or not—need to be ejected from the fandom and never let back in.

Noah Schnapp is a human being. He does not deserve this treatment. No one does. No one is saying you have to like him or even care about him. But you SHOULD care that this is how he's being treated and the impact it is having on others. The impact on Jewish people. The impact on queer people. Standing up and saying that does not mean you support genocide or murder or bigotry of any kind. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I am a person with left-leaning values. I'm tired of those values being spat on and dragged through the mud by people who think THIS is activism or is in any way helping a cause. It's not. All it is doing is perpetuating harm on a real person and real communities—queer and Jewish alike. And it needs to stop.

Related Blogs:

I've compiled some related blogs that expand on other elements of the situation that I've mentioned above in greater detail. This post was already long enough. I'll be updating this as more content comes out.

Examples of Noah’s Support for Gaza and Palestine (by @nymphus-fan-account)

The Evolution of a Lie

No, the Stranger Things Cast Does Not Hate Noah Schnapp

Lyric Vault’s Obsession with Noah Schnapp

[formerprincewille]

my love, he keeps me warm. wips and more only on patreon

[formerprincewille]

If Byler isn't canon using a gay character's suffering to fix a straight relationship is MESSED UP AF

Also ain't nothing fixing Mileven. El needs to find herself and Mike needs to find that angsty little bowlcut right in front of him

[formerprincewille]

"You never say it." "I say it."

And

"I didn't say anything." "You didn't have to."

THE DIFFERENCE

[formerprincewille]

"both sides of the fandom are toxic!!"

milevens: mike will never love Will back he'll reject him and then everyone lives but him

bylers: if they touch el i'm killing myself

[formerprincewille]

I'm sick of the constant refrain from mainstream ST fans who say puritanical nonsense like: “It's gross that people ship Byler when they're two kids."

And yet people have been shipping Milkvan since Season 1 when they were 12. When Milkvan kissed in S1 it was considered "cute."

People shipped Lucas and Max since Season 2 when they were 13, and again squealed over them dancing together and them kissing. And of course no one had a word to say about Dustin and Susie being together at 14 in Season 3.

But no, apparently it's a problem when Will (who just turned 15 in Season 4) is confirmed to have feelings for his best friend.

Not to mention in Season 5 all the kid cast will be 16. You know roughly the age Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan were in Season 1/2. And no one bats an eye at Nancy and Steve making out and even having sex, but the idea of people wanting Mike and Will to even kiss is "too much."

I'm so over the double standards. It's homophobia plain and simple.

[formerprincewille]

Hey so do you guys remember when el literally didn't know how to tell if she actually liked things herself untill max showed her in s3 and then immediately after she broke up with Mike? Just double checking

[formerprincewille]

Yes forever grateful that they didn't go that route now because the Eddie hate would have been more than I would tolerate.

Q. I don't understand why it's taking so long though. It's been years of stalling. We're all tired. Give us Buddie now.

A. It's been years for us, but it has not been years as far as the show is concerned. Yes for us it has been 7 years of build up, and yes, the show gave winks and nods to it throughout the seasons BUT it has never been acknowledged within the actual text of the show until this season. The show didn't start the build up clock until season 8, we could probably technically say they started it last season with episode 7x4, but the actual possibility was never mentioned on screen until season 8. There is a tried and true formula for telling a friends to lovers storyline. There are particular story beats each character has to hit and there are particular plot points the storyline has to have as well. Everyone pretty much follows the same formula. They could have had the two of them hook-up out of grief over Bobby, grief hookups are one of the paths you could take with that formula. But if they had gone down that particular path the formula dictates that one of them, in this case it most likely would have been Eddie, would have to say the hook-up was a mistake. Even though they wouldn't really think that the trope dictates they say that. That's how you get to the mutual pining stage of the formula. The insane, unnecessary, and frankly inappropriate amount of Eddie hate that would have caused is something I am forever grateful the show avoided. I do not allow Eddie hate.

The formula is feelings realization, awkwardness, mutual pining, everyone else in their lives being painfully aware, but the protagonists being unaware, canon event that propels some kind of confession, first kiss, more awkwardness, canon couple. There are various paths along this route they can choose to accomplish each of these things but this is the formula. And I don't want it rushed. TikTok, clip reels, and YouTube shorts have ruined an entire generation, maybe two, ability to take in media in real time as it happens. Let them tell the story. I want the story. I don't want a 2 minute TikTok reel. I want to see the realization moment for both of them. I want the awkwardness. I want the mutual PINING. I want all of it because we, and Oliver and Ryan, have earned this storyline. And I want it spoon fed to me. I want to watch Oliver and Ryan swoon and kill me with chemistry. FEED ME.

Thank you Nonny!

It's most definitely true that, ever since season 7, they have obviously been building up to Buddie canon. I never really thought we'd get Buddie canon until ABC took over and they started promoting season 7. They were really giving focus to Ryan and Oliver and Buddie.

And then, when season 7 aired and Buck came out as bi? Well, I was certain then and I'm still certain now.

I do think we were supposed to get something more during the latter half of season 8 than we ended up getting. Whatever it was that went down behind the scenes, Bobby's sudden death really messed up the rest of the season and one of the stories that got pushed to season 9 was Buddie.

But season 8 gave us sooo much to work with that I'm not complaining. I had hoped for something more in 8x18. Some kind of a bigger nudge in the right direction, but ultimately I'm not really mad about it. We got sooo much in 8x17 that I'm okay with the tiniest hints in 8x18.

Besides 8x18 gave us heroic Eddie Diaz and I'm still swooning over those scenes. 🤗😌

And yeah, I agree with Ali. I need to see it all! I want to see their story unfold on my TV screen, so I can yell and scream and go crazy over them. Having one of your ships go canon is an amazing feeling. I'm ready for it. 😋

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[formerprincewille]

If Mike Wheeler wasn't queer the airport awkward "hug" scene would not exist at allllllll wake UPPPP

[formerprincewille]

Mike asking Will if he's okay

Plus:

Mike asks Will if he's okay in every season except season 4.

Will Mike ask him if he's okay in season 5 since they're back in Hawkins?

[formerprincewille]

stranger things (2016-2025)