lune-moon-nuit

[lune-moon-nuit]

We're not all English speakers here. Most of us work extra hard to write takes and analyses only to have to translate them into English. It would be nice if you'd stop insulting the work that took time and energy. When you spend an entire morning writing a very long analysis only to have it translated into English and then someone accuses you of not having written it because "the grammar and sentences are too perfect not to be AI" it's truly offensive.

[lune-moon-nuit]

Hi coming here to say you’re analysis on conservatism in the stranger thing fandom is SPOT ON. Reading that person’s replies to you is hurting my brain. So they think you’re a minor (insult you for your brain not being ‘fully developed’ when you’re a full grown adult) and then WHILE ASSUMING YOU’RE A MINOR go into explicit detail of sex. But no, you’re the one in the wrong because you said Billy, though traumatized, is a piece of shit. Anyways, you’re right and they’re wrong lol

Thank you so much for your message. I truly appreciate it. I spent a great deal of time writing my post—it mattered deeply to me because it had been growing and evolving in my mind for days, even weeks. But as someone who isn’t a native English speaker and who struggles to put thoughts into words, it took me a long time, especially since I also have to translate all of my ideas afterward.

The person who responded is simply someone who feels personally attacked—because they recognize themselves in what was said. What’s most frustrating is that they have the audacity to claim I “didn’t understand anything,” all while describing events that quite literally never happened in the show. They’ve distorted entire scenes just to support their point.

The core issue most of these people have is that they feel uncomfortable being reminded of what Billy actually did throughout the series—and the fact that he was never redeemed. The only element that evokes tenderness or empathy is his childhood memories. But the truth is, even the worst criminals were once innocent children. That does not erase the choices they make and the harm they cause once they’re no longer children.

And more importantly, Billy made up perhaps 10% of what I discussed in my post, yet they still felt the need to reduce and distort everything I wrote. That alone tells me I struck a nerve—and that I must have been right. They panicked when confronted with the truth.

[lune-moon-nuit]

All this monologue to already

1. distort all my words,

2. insult my story as a victim of multiple abuses,

3. only to justify and minimize the actions of a character written to be a villain created by the conformism that heroes fight against,

4. and all that to feel validated because you minimize and justify all his actions only because you fantasize about this problematic person.

Yeah go kindly screw you Billy stans, you are Trumpist psychopaths I'm not even going to bother reading you

I must admit, I find it incredibly difficult to understand how a portion of the Stranger Things audience can be so conservative, when from the very beginning, the Duffer Brothers—along with the cast—have made it a point to consistently remind viewers, through dialogue, storytelling, and thematic structure, that this series exists to honor, uplift, and defend the marginalized—those who do not conform to heteronormative standards or societal expectations.

As @kieusol so aptly pointed out in their post, the same segment of the audience that clings to conservative ideals also tends to idolize Billy, despite the fact that he embodies everything the protagonists of the series are fighting against. Billy is the ultimate result of what happens when a person is forced to adhere to the suffocating pressures of conformity, toxic masculinity, homophobia, racism, and a cycle of violence inherited and perpetuated through trauma. He is the very embodiment of what societal norms want us to become, but whose existence brings only pain and destruction.

He is glorified not because of his complexity as a character, but because he represents the ideals conservatives wish to preserve—and it’s not a coincidence that during a time when far-right and fascist ideologies are gaining momentum across both the United States and Europe, there are people watching Stranger Things and deliberately glorifying what Billy represents, all while turning a blind eye to the deeper meaning and symbolism of the show.

This trend parallels the alarming rise in homophobic rhetoric targeting Will, particularly since Season 4, and especially within the Mileven fandom. Beyond fans who simply want Mike and Eleven to stay together as a projection of themselves onto El/Millie in order to fantasize about being with Mike/Finn, I’ve also observed a growing number of online voices—entirely unaffiliated with any fandom—insisting that Byler is impossible and that Mike loves Eleven. These are not fans; they are outside viewers with conservative, Trumpist, and blatantly homophobic mindsets, who care little for Mileven but are adamant that a main character who is openly gay should not win, should not get the love he deserves, and should not be allowed to thrive.

It is worth noting that Stranger Things Season 1 premiered in the same year Donald Trump was elected for the first time. It is critical that we remember the words David Harbour spoke when the cast received an award shortly thereafter. As @miwiheroes brilliantly articulated in their thesis, particularly in section 1.4.1 For the Marginalised, Harbour’s speech (as you can watch on @your-ivy-grows13 post) was a call to action—a plea to uphold the series' fundamental message and to extend its protective embrace to the real-world marginalized. And today, we need that message more than ever.

Every single main character in Stranger Things is targeted in one way or another—for being a "nerd", yes, but even more so for being girls, for being Black, for living with a disability, for being gay, queer, lesbian, poor, a single mother, or a survivor of abuse. These identities are precisely the same communities being attacked and made most vulnerable by far-right regimes such as Trump’s. When David delivered his speech urging vigilance, Trump had already begun cultivating an atmosphere of fear. With his potential second term, he has shifted from laying the groundwork to openly launching assaults on human rights.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that more and more conservatives have gradually started watching Stranger Things, seeking to strip it of its nuance, subtext, and pointed symbolic direction, all carefully crafted by the Duffers. These individuals despise art, culture, and intelligence—anything that threatens their propaganda and rigid worldview. That’s why they idealize someone like Billy, excusing his crimes and abuse, and cling to a romantic pairing like Mileven, even when it makes both characters deeply unhappy. They’d rather see Mike and Eleven suffer than accept a narrative where two gay boys are in love and happy and—especially if those boys are main characters in one of the world’s most popular shows. And to witness a young girl—survivor of years of abuse—gain her independence and come to the profound realization that she does not need a man’s validation in order to exist. (For this I can only recommend you to read the posts that this genius @gayofthefae wrote about El and her relationships with the male figures in her life : here, here and here it's fascinating).

This is precisely why, as an act of resistance against the normalization of homophobia, racism, hatred, and violence disguised as societal norms—which is the very thing the characters themselves suffer under—it is crucial that Byler becomes canon. It would be a message of hope to queer viewers and an opportunity to awaken those whose minds have been clouded by conservative rhetoric. All art is political. There is a reason the far-right seeks to censor it: art is one of the most powerful forms of resistance. Through metaphor and allegory, it transmits vital truths that challenge the status quo.

I know I may be rambling and struggling to organize my thoughts, but what I am ultimately trying to express is this: the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, David Harbour, and the rest of the cast have been repeating since 2016 that Stranger Things is a love letter to the freaks and the imperfect. That message is what gives many of us the strength to fight, to survive in a world that demands conformity, to dare to be ourselves, and to realize we are not alone. We are not mistakes—no matter our differences, no matter who we are, who we love, the color of our skin, our gender, our bodies, our pain. We are not alone—we are united. And it is love—romantic, familial, platonic—that binds us together and triumphs over hate and violence.

That is why we must never lose sight of what this series has stood for since day one. We must remember its original message. Never forget.

And when the little twelve-year-old boy—bullied, abused, hated for who he is, kidnapped and traumatized in the very first season—finally defeats the monster of conformity and trauma, and emerges alive, healed, and happy, with the boy he loves by his side—that message of hope will be passed on to viewers, and we will have won. And that victory, within the story, must inspire us to achieve those same victories in the real world—to create a better, more compassionate future for everyone.

[lune-moon-nuit]

I am 28 years old. I was subjected to abuse and rape between the ages of 6 and 8—abuse severe enough to cause traumatic amnesia, which did not begin to resurface until I was 20. At 18, I was also groomed and abused for nearly two years, trapped in the vicious cycle of intimate partner violence. During that same period, I was sexually assaulted by someone I considered a friend—while I was already struggling to survive everything else.

So no, you are not going to explain to me—**a survivor and an adult who has lived through it—**how abuse works. And you are certainly not going to distort my words or falsely accuse me of having said there are only two types of victims.

What I said—and I stand by it—is that victims often find themselves with two possible paths in the aftermath of trauma. That is not an exclusionary statement, nor does it deny the multitude of ways people may respond to abuse. But just because you're uncomfortable with people rightfully calling out the way you feel the need to justify or minimize the abusive behavior of a fictional character, due to your personal fantasies about him, does not give you the right to project your own internal conflicts and vices onto others.

You felt attacked the moment I presented a sociological analysis—nothing more, nothing less. And yet you have the audacity to claim the Duffer Brothers’ writing lacks complexity and nuance, while simultaneously spending hours trying to argue that Billy is more nuanced and complex than simply an abusive, racist, and homophobic character. You contradict yourself so thoroughly that the very foundation of your argument collapses under its own weight.

Furthermore, the reason Max is cursed by Vecna is precisely because the writing intentionally centers the emotional complexity of a victim dealing with abuse that stems from someone close—a family member, a loved one, someone within her trusted circle. That is called complex trauma, and what she experiences is emotional dissonance: the simultaneous existence of contradictory feelings toward her abuser, despite the pain and damage he inflicted.

But unlike your romanticized view of it, the show doesn’t glorify that dissonance. It sheds light on how trauma and guilt—particularly when tangled with conflicting emotions—drag Max into a state of depression, isolation, and self-destruction. That’s not romantic. That’s psychology. But I don’t expect you to grasp that nuance when you can’t even comprehend the basic structure of the show’s narrative.

I’m blocking you now, because I refuse to keep enduring insults simply because you can’t handle anyone disrupting your fantasy of "peacefully romanticizing" Billy—a man who is, without ambiguity, an abusive, homophobic, and racist character.

Do yourself a favor and speak to a therapist, instead of feeling personally attacked by the truth.

I must admit, I find it incredibly difficult to understand how a portion of the Stranger Things audience can be so conservative, when from the very beginning, the Duffer Brothers—along with the cast—have made it a point to consistently remind viewers, through dialogue, storytelling, and thematic structure, that this series exists to honor, uplift, and defend the marginalized—those who do not conform to heteronormative standards or societal expectations.

As @kieusol so aptly pointed out in their post, the same segment of the audience that clings to conservative ideals also tends to idolize Billy, despite the fact that he embodies everything the protagonists of the series are fighting against. Billy is the ultimate result of what happens when a person is forced to adhere to the suffocating pressures of conformity, toxic masculinity, homophobia, racism, and a cycle of violence inherited and perpetuated through trauma. He is the very embodiment of what societal norms want us to become, but whose existence brings only pain and destruction.

He is glorified not because of his complexity as a character, but because he represents the ideals conservatives wish to preserve—and it’s not a coincidence that during a time when far-right and fascist ideologies are gaining momentum across both the United States and Europe, there are people watching Stranger Things and deliberately glorifying what Billy represents, all while turning a blind eye to the deeper meaning and symbolism of the show.

This trend parallels the alarming rise in homophobic rhetoric targeting Will, particularly since Season 4, and especially within the Mileven fandom. Beyond fans who simply want Mike and Eleven to stay together as a projection of themselves onto El/Millie in order to fantasize about being with Mike/Finn, I’ve also observed a growing number of online voices—entirely unaffiliated with any fandom—insisting that Byler is impossible and that Mike loves Eleven. These are not fans; they are outside viewers with conservative, Trumpist, and blatantly homophobic mindsets, who care little for Mileven but are adamant that a main character who is openly gay should not win, should not get the love he deserves, and should not be allowed to thrive.

It is worth noting that Stranger Things Season 1 premiered in the same year Donald Trump was elected for the first time. It is critical that we remember the words David Harbour spoke when the cast received an award shortly thereafter. As @miwiheroes brilliantly articulated in their thesis, particularly in section 1.4.1 For the Marginalised, Harbour’s speech (as you can watch on @your-ivy-grows13 post) was a call to action—a plea to uphold the series' fundamental message and to extend its protective embrace to the real-world marginalized. And today, we need that message more than ever.

Every single main character in Stranger Things is targeted in one way or another—for being a "nerd", yes, but even more so for being girls, for being Black, for living with a disability, for being gay, queer, lesbian, poor, a single mother, or a survivor of abuse. These identities are precisely the same communities being attacked and made most vulnerable by far-right regimes such as Trump’s. When David delivered his speech urging vigilance, Trump had already begun cultivating an atmosphere of fear. With his potential second term, he has shifted from laying the groundwork to openly launching assaults on human rights.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that more and more conservatives have gradually started watching Stranger Things, seeking to strip it of its nuance, subtext, and pointed symbolic direction, all carefully crafted by the Duffers. These individuals despise art, culture, and intelligence—anything that threatens their propaganda and rigid worldview. That’s why they idealize someone like Billy, excusing his crimes and abuse, and cling to a romantic pairing like Mileven, even when it makes both characters deeply unhappy. They’d rather see Mike and Eleven suffer than accept a narrative where two gay boys are in love and happy and—especially if those boys are main characters in one of the world’s most popular shows. And to witness a young girl—survivor of years of abuse—gain her independence and come to the profound realization that she does not need a man’s validation in order to exist. (For this I can only recommend you to read the posts that this genius @gayofthefae wrote about El and her relationships with the male figures in her life : here, here and here it's fascinating).

This is precisely why, as an act of resistance against the normalization of homophobia, racism, hatred, and violence disguised as societal norms—which is the very thing the characters themselves suffer under—it is crucial that Byler becomes canon. It would be a message of hope to queer viewers and an opportunity to awaken those whose minds have been clouded by conservative rhetoric. All art is political. There is a reason the far-right seeks to censor it: art is one of the most powerful forms of resistance. Through metaphor and allegory, it transmits vital truths that challenge the status quo.

I know I may be rambling and struggling to organize my thoughts, but what I am ultimately trying to express is this: the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, David Harbour, and the rest of the cast have been repeating since 2016 that Stranger Things is a love letter to the freaks and the imperfect. That message is what gives many of us the strength to fight, to survive in a world that demands conformity, to dare to be ourselves, and to realize we are not alone. We are not mistakes—no matter our differences, no matter who we are, who we love, the color of our skin, our gender, our bodies, our pain. We are not alone—we are united. And it is love—romantic, familial, platonic—that binds us together and triumphs over hate and violence.

That is why we must never lose sight of what this series has stood for since day one. We must remember its original message. Never forget.

And when the little twelve-year-old boy—bullied, abused, hated for who he is, kidnapped and traumatized in the very first season—finally defeats the monster of conformity and trauma, and emerges alive, healed, and happy, with the boy he loves by his side—that message of hope will be passed on to viewers, and we will have won. And that victory, within the story, must inspire us to achieve those same victories in the real world—to create a better, more compassionate future for everyone.

[lune-moon-nuit]

To twist and distort facts in order to serve your narrative is precisely what a Trumpist would do. No one here has denied the abuse Billy endured as a child or the impact it had on him. But the harsh truth is: when someone experiences trauma, they are often faced with two distinct paths. One, to perpetuate the very violence they suffered—fuelled by the mentality of, “If I had to endure this, then others should too.” Or two, to protect others from such harm precisely because they understand the magnitude of the pain it causes. Billy very clearly chose the first path.

And just because he was a victim of the Mind Flayer and ultimately sacrificed himself—which, let’s be honest, seemed more like a desperate attempt to end his own suffering, since he had no way to break free from its control—doesn’t erase the damage he caused. Unlike Steve, Billy never experienced a true redemption arc. He wasn’t given, or didn't seize, the opportunity to evolve through meaningful communication or emotional growth. He never attempted to deconstruct his behavior or confront his internalized hatred in order to become a better person. That’s tragic—but it’s the truth.

Without the Mind Flayer, he would have continued being the same racist, homophobic bully who was willing to beat up Steve and Lucas for their choices and skin color, and who abused Max emotionally and psychologically out of pure sadism and the desire to exert control.

You can have empathy for Billy as the abused child he once was. But glorifying him—or justifying and minimizing his actions as an adult—is as absurd as defending the men who assaulted Gisèle Pélicot just because they claimed, “I was abused as a child.” There’s a difference between empathy and enabling.

And then you say, “You're no better than the bullies,” simply because I dared to expose, with articulate language and analysis, the growing influence of the far-right and conservatism within a fanbase increasingly populated by viewers who watch this series without truly understanding it? And you compare that to literal harassment and violence driven by hatred? The audacity is staggering. Your rhetoric sounds remarkably similar to something Trump himself might say. But judging by how personally offended you are, it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to deduce that my words struck a nerve—and likely because they contain more truth than you're ready to accept.

After all, this kind of projection is a classic defense mechanism when someone is confronted with a version of themselves they are not prepared to face. Ask Michael Wheeler—he’s a master of projection too.

You go off on a nonsensical tangent to prove that Mike loves El more than Will by citing that in Season 2, he was more affected by Jane’s presumed death than by Will’s disappearance in Season 1? Aside from the appalling lack of emotional maturity and basic empathy it takes to even attempt to compare two vastly different traumas and forms of grief, your need to manipulate the narrative to serve your heteronormative agenda speaks volumes.

Yes, Mike grieved when he believed Jane had died. But what haunted him more deeply was survivor’s guilt—watching her sacrifice herself before his eyes to save them. His journey toward healing began when he finally opened up to Will on Halloween night, the night of the last radio call, when he chose to stop calling into the void.

Since you enjoy comparisons: Mike went out of his way to search for Will from day one—sneaking out in the rain, combing the woods, clinging to hope when everyone else had given up. Meanwhile, after possibly seeing Jane through a window, he didn’t even bother trying to look for her for an entire year. And in Season 2, his sole focus was on helping Will, comforting and protecting him—showing the same level of concern for him as he did for Jane once she returned during the final battle.

So your deeply biased, borderline dishonest arguments fall apart upon closer scrutiny—and only confirm how fragile and inconsistent your stance truly is.

Thank you, though, for proving my point: people on your side of the political spectrum have an inherent aversion to the complexity and nuance the Duffer Brothers weave into their narrative. You either ignore it or twist it into something reductive, in order to validate your simplistic, conservative worldview—like your interpretation of Season 3, for instance. Your entire monologue does nothing but reinforce everything I’ve said.

You tried to employ the classic Trumpian tactic of role reversal—positioning yourself as the victim in an attempt to divert attention from the truth. But that won’t work on someone like me, someone who knows how to think critically and doesn’t blindly absorb baseless propaganda.

At the very least, you’re providing free publicity for posts that actually reflect intelligence and integrity. So I suppose you’re useful for something after all.

I must admit, I find it incredibly difficult to understand how a portion of the Stranger Things audience can be so conservative, when from the very beginning, the Duffer Brothers—along with the cast—have made it a point to consistently remind viewers, through dialogue, storytelling, and thematic structure, that this series exists to honor, uplift, and defend the marginalized—those who do not conform to heteronormative standards or societal expectations.

As @kieusol so aptly pointed out in their post, the same segment of the audience that clings to conservative ideals also tends to idolize Billy, despite the fact that he embodies everything the protagonists of the series are fighting against. Billy is the ultimate result of what happens when a person is forced to adhere to the suffocating pressures of conformity, toxic masculinity, homophobia, racism, and a cycle of violence inherited and perpetuated through trauma. He is the very embodiment of what societal norms want us to become, but whose existence brings only pain and destruction.

He is glorified not because of his complexity as a character, but because he represents the ideals conservatives wish to preserve—and it’s not a coincidence that during a time when far-right and fascist ideologies are gaining momentum across both the United States and Europe, there are people watching Stranger Things and deliberately glorifying what Billy represents, all while turning a blind eye to the deeper meaning and symbolism of the show.

This trend parallels the alarming rise in homophobic rhetoric targeting Will, particularly since Season 4, and especially within the Mileven fandom. Beyond fans who simply want Mike and Eleven to stay together as a projection of themselves onto El/Millie in order to fantasize about being with Mike/Finn, I’ve also observed a growing number of online voices—entirely unaffiliated with any fandom—insisting that Byler is impossible and that Mike loves Eleven. These are not fans; they are outside viewers with conservative, Trumpist, and blatantly homophobic mindsets, who care little for Mileven but are adamant that a main character who is openly gay should not win, should not get the love he deserves, and should not be allowed to thrive.

It is worth noting that Stranger Things Season 1 premiered in the same year Donald Trump was elected for the first time. It is critical that we remember the words David Harbour spoke when the cast received an award shortly thereafter. As @miwiheroes brilliantly articulated in their thesis, particularly in section 1.4.1 For the Marginalised, Harbour’s speech (as you can watch on @your-ivy-grows13 post) was a call to action—a plea to uphold the series' fundamental message and to extend its protective embrace to the real-world marginalized. And today, we need that message more than ever.

Every single main character in Stranger Things is targeted in one way or another—for being a "nerd", yes, but even more so for being girls, for being Black, for living with a disability, for being gay, queer, lesbian, poor, a single mother, or a survivor of abuse. These identities are precisely the same communities being attacked and made most vulnerable by far-right regimes such as Trump’s. When David delivered his speech urging vigilance, Trump had already begun cultivating an atmosphere of fear. With his potential second term, he has shifted from laying the groundwork to openly launching assaults on human rights.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that more and more conservatives have gradually started watching Stranger Things, seeking to strip it of its nuance, subtext, and pointed symbolic direction, all carefully crafted by the Duffers. These individuals despise art, culture, and intelligence—anything that threatens their propaganda and rigid worldview. That’s why they idealize someone like Billy, excusing his crimes and abuse, and cling to a romantic pairing like Mileven, even when it makes both characters deeply unhappy. They’d rather see Mike and Eleven suffer than accept a narrative where two gay boys are in love and happy and—especially if those boys are main characters in one of the world’s most popular shows. And to witness a young girl—survivor of years of abuse—gain her independence and come to the profound realization that she does not need a man’s validation in order to exist. (For this I can only recommend you to read the posts that this genius @gayofthefae wrote about El and her relationships with the male figures in her life : here, here and here it's fascinating).

This is precisely why, as an act of resistance against the normalization of homophobia, racism, hatred, and violence disguised as societal norms—which is the very thing the characters themselves suffer under—it is crucial that Byler becomes canon. It would be a message of hope to queer viewers and an opportunity to awaken those whose minds have been clouded by conservative rhetoric. All art is political. There is a reason the far-right seeks to censor it: art is one of the most powerful forms of resistance. Through metaphor and allegory, it transmits vital truths that challenge the status quo.

I know I may be rambling and struggling to organize my thoughts, but what I am ultimately trying to express is this: the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, David Harbour, and the rest of the cast have been repeating since 2016 that Stranger Things is a love letter to the freaks and the imperfect. That message is what gives many of us the strength to fight, to survive in a world that demands conformity, to dare to be ourselves, and to realize we are not alone. We are not mistakes—no matter our differences, no matter who we are, who we love, the color of our skin, our gender, our bodies, our pain. We are not alone—we are united. And it is love—romantic, familial, platonic—that binds us together and triumphs over hate and violence.

That is why we must never lose sight of what this series has stood for since day one. We must remember its original message. Never forget.

And when the little twelve-year-old boy—bullied, abused, hated for who he is, kidnapped and traumatized in the very first season—finally defeats the monster of conformity and trauma, and emerges alive, healed, and happy, with the boy he loves by his side—that message of hope will be passed on to viewers, and we will have won. And that victory, within the story, must inspire us to achieve those same victories in the real world—to create a better, more compassionate future for everyone.

[lune-moon-nuit]

I must admit, I find it incredibly difficult to understand how a portion of the Stranger Things audience can be so conservative, when from the very beginning, the Duffer Brothers—along with the cast—have made it a point to consistently remind viewers, through dialogue, storytelling, and thematic structure, that this series exists to honor, uplift, and defend the marginalized—those who do not conform to heteronormative standards or societal expectations.

As @kieusol so aptly pointed out in their post, the same segment of the audience that clings to conservative ideals also tends to idolize Billy, despite the fact that he embodies everything the protagonists of the series are fighting against. Billy is the ultimate result of what happens when a person is forced to adhere to the suffocating pressures of conformity, toxic masculinity, homophobia, racism, and a cycle of violence inherited and perpetuated through trauma. He is the very embodiment of what societal norms want us to become, but whose existence brings only pain and destruction.

He is glorified not because of his complexity as a character, but because he represents the ideals conservatives wish to preserve—and it’s not a coincidence that during a time when far-right and fascist ideologies are gaining momentum across both the United States and Europe, there are people watching Stranger Things and deliberately glorifying what Billy represents, all while turning a blind eye to the deeper meaning and symbolism of the show.

This trend parallels the alarming rise in homophobic rhetoric targeting Will, particularly since Season 4, and especially within the Mileven fandom. Beyond fans who simply want Mike and Eleven to stay together as a projection of themselves onto El/Millie in order to fantasize about being with Mike/Finn, I’ve also observed a growing number of online voices—entirely unaffiliated with any fandom—insisting that Byler is impossible and that Mike loves Eleven. These are not fans; they are outside viewers with conservative, Trumpist, and blatantly homophobic mindsets, who care little for Mileven but are adamant that a main character who is openly gay should not win, should not get the love he deserves, and should not be allowed to thrive.

It is worth noting that Stranger Things Season 1 premiered in the same year Donald Trump was elected for the first time. It is critical that we remember the words David Harbour spoke when the cast received an award shortly thereafter. As @miwiheroes brilliantly articulated in their thesis, particularly in section 1.4.1 For the Marginalised, Harbour’s speech (as you can watch on @your-ivy-grows13 post) was a call to action—a plea to uphold the series' fundamental message and to extend its protective embrace to the real-world marginalized. And today, we need that message more than ever.

Every single main character in Stranger Things is targeted in one way or another—for being a "nerd", yes, but even more so for being girls, for being Black, for living with a disability, for being gay, queer, lesbian, poor, a single mother, or a survivor of abuse. These identities are precisely the same communities being attacked and made most vulnerable by far-right regimes such as Trump’s. When David delivered his speech urging vigilance, Trump had already begun cultivating an atmosphere of fear. With his potential second term, he has shifted from laying the groundwork to openly launching assaults on human rights.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that more and more conservatives have gradually started watching Stranger Things, seeking to strip it of its nuance, subtext, and pointed symbolic direction, all carefully crafted by the Duffers. These individuals despise art, culture, and intelligence—anything that threatens their propaganda and rigid worldview. That’s why they idealize someone like Billy, excusing his crimes and abuse, and cling to a romantic pairing like Mileven, even when it makes both characters deeply unhappy. They’d rather see Mike and Eleven suffer than accept a narrative where two gay boys are in love and happy and—especially if those boys are main characters in one of the world’s most popular shows. And to witness a young girl—survivor of years of abuse—gain her independence and come to the profound realization that she does not need a man’s validation in order to exist. (For this I can only recommend you to read the posts that this genius @gayofthefae wrote about El and her relationships with the male figures in her life : here, here and here it's fascinating).

This is precisely why, as an act of resistance against the normalization of homophobia, racism, hatred, and violence disguised as societal norms—which is the very thing the characters themselves suffer under—it is crucial that Byler becomes canon. It would be a message of hope to queer viewers and an opportunity to awaken those whose minds have been clouded by conservative rhetoric. All art is political. There is a reason the far-right seeks to censor it: art is one of the most powerful forms of resistance. Through metaphor and allegory, it transmits vital truths that challenge the status quo.

I know I may be rambling and struggling to organize my thoughts, but what I am ultimately trying to express is this: the Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, David Harbour, and the rest of the cast have been repeating since 2016 that Stranger Things is a love letter to the freaks and the imperfect. That message is what gives many of us the strength to fight, to survive in a world that demands conformity, to dare to be ourselves, and to realize we are not alone. We are not mistakes—no matter our differences, no matter who we are, who we love, the color of our skin, our gender, our bodies, our pain. We are not alone—we are united. And it is love—romantic, familial, platonic—that binds us together and triumphs over hate and violence.

That is why we must never lose sight of what this series has stood for since day one. We must remember its original message. Never forget.

And when the little twelve-year-old boy—bullied, abused, hated for who he is, kidnapped and traumatized in the very first season—finally defeats the monster of conformity and trauma, and emerges alive, healed, and happy, with the boy he loves by his side—that message of hope will be passed on to viewers, and we will have won. And that victory, within the story, must inspire us to achieve those same victories in the real world—to create a better, more compassionate future for everyone.

[lune-moon-nuit]

EXCATLY

“But byler is unrealistic!”

Literally everyone involved in making stranger things disagrees. This speech was made by David Harbour in 2017, and it is still some of the best byler proof that exists:

“But this award from you, who take your craft seriously, and earnestly believe, like me, that great acting can change the world, is a call to arms for our fellow craftsmen and women to go deeper and, through our art, to battle against fear, self-centeredness and exclusivity of our predominantly narcissistic culture and through our craft to cultivate a more empathetic and understanding society... by revealing intimate truths that serve as a forceful reminder to folks that when they feel broken and afraid and tired, they are not alone.

We are united in that we are all human beings and we are all together on this horrible, painful, joyous, exciting and mysterious ride that is being alive.

As we act in the continuing narrative of Stranger Things, we... will repel bullies, we will shelter freaks and outcasts, those who have no home, we will get past the lies, we will hunt monsters, and when we are at a loss amidst the hypocrisy and the casual violence of certain individuals and institutions, we will, as per chief Jim Hopper, punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak, the disenfranchised, and we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy. We thank you for this responsibility.”

[lune-moon-nuit]

You are such a freaking genius, your take about El, her relationship with Mike is so on point!

Will is to El what Benny is to Mike.

I'll explain.

They haunt the narrative of their relationship in different ways.

In season 1, Eleven needs a caretaker. And in episode 1 of season 1, she gets it. Immediately, to the full extent, no flaws, everything she needed. But she loses it. And Mike is wonderful and sweet and their friendship is nice and the crush is cute, but a 12 year old boy will never be the caretaker a 35 year old man is, he just won't.

In season 3, Mike wants romance, that feeling of spark. And in season 2, he had it. Exactly as he wanted it. But he wasn't allowed, and it slipped through his fingers. And El is kind and understanding and funny and he enjoys his time with her. But she isn't Will. That isn't a flaw, it's just a fact.

And it doesn't mean they don't need each other, it means they need each other different. Their relationship from episode 1 because of Benny, and Will, being introduced and lost immediately before they met, has been about them forcing the wrong natures to their relationships and trying to supplement needs best fulfilled elsewhere.

They have always needed to be friends. And maybe there were crushes in there too, but those are flexible and unattached to that core. El needed a caretaker. A 12 year old boy is not a caretaker. Mike wanted Will. El is not Will.

But El wants a friend who makes her laugh. And Mike also wants a friend who listens and understands. And they have that and they find it in each other.

Every fight they have is about not being something they were never meant to be for each other. Every fight they have is about failing to replace someone else they had in their life.

Mike lost Will and he wanted through El to be in love. He couldn't, he didn't know what to do, she noticed, he couldn't explain why, and she dumped him.

El lost Benny after living with Brenner and she wanted Mike to be that man-who-was-Brenner-but-better, who gave her the approval and caretaking and self worth and validation she still needed externally. That's why there are so many parallels to Brenner. But he couldn't give her that self worth she actually had sought and received from Benny, then Hopper, because where she thought she was seeking "you are lovable by anyone", she was seeking "a parent shouldn't treat you that way", which could never be demonstrated by Mike.

Mike and El love each other. They have numerous happy, comfortable scenes together. All of which are or can be as friends. Because that is what they need from each other. Their fights only occur when El is "failing" to be Will or Mike is "failing" to be Benny/Hopper. They're even often prefaced by this - Mike is ignoring Will in pursuit of projecting those feelings onto El then gets dumped because he's failing, El is repairing her figurine of Hopper then gets upset at Mike for not giving her what she got from him.

These characters were introduced to us and specifically singled out with Mike and El to be this haunting, someone who existed before to be replaced, that's why I keep mentioning Benny, not just Hopper, because he was there before Mike. Their entire relationship all the way back to their first episode together because of that order has been a friendship peaking through the guise of "failing" to be Will and "failing" to be Benny (or later Hopper).

But El isn't failing to be Will. And Mike isn't failing to Benny, or Hopper. El is succeeding at being El. And Mike is succeeding at being Mike.

It's about expectation. And their breakup is about releasing that expectation, an unfair one.

Their romance was a projection they latched onto a crush of what they needed from other people. It wasn't love at first sight. It was a crush at first sight given the emotional weight of pre-existing relationships.

But their friendship was always real. They will always fail to be Benny or Hopper or Will. Because it is simply an impossible task. They will always be crying and yelling and yelling and defending and breaking down.

But once they release the expectation to be anyone but themselves. Once they admit their real needs, once they allow them to be fulfilled by the people they're actually seeking.

They can actually be together. I LOVE El and Mike. Shippers get me wrong. I don't love Will and Benny, Will and Hopper. I want them to break up because I WANT El and Mike back. Or not back, so much as full-time.

This. This is them. Mike and El. Actually *just* Mike and El.

And even just the pressure released on the same actions. There are things they still want from each other that they were trying to be from others before, or knew was being interpreted differently. I can't wait for the physical affection without pressure to be someone else or feel something else.

They want it. He wants Will to touch his face and hold his hand. And he wants El to touch his face and hold his hand. But he wants them differently, and when he thinks about how he wants it from El while El is the one doing it, he's able to actually relax and enjoy it.

I can't wait for them to come home <3. Full time. Self-awarely secure in that, that all their big issues are behind them because they let go of the expectations. That they can be affectionate, and imagine a future and take risks because they won't fall apart like they did again, that's not possible anymore.

I love them and they love each other. They deserve to love each other.

Because this is what happens when they look at each other and only see each other in them.

[lune-moon-nuit]

You are such a genius for real

There are people who still think El's arc is about Mike, but her entire plotline of episode one was her finding a healthy father figure.

THIS WAS GONNA BE A SHORT POST BUT OH MY GOD

Step 1, but she loses him

Step 2, immediately following

Step 1, but she loses him

Step 2, immediately following

We've been over this whole thing before but I never realized Benny was a part of it too.

It has always been about fathers for her. You don't heal from your father through your boyfriend. You can heal and also have a boyfriend, your boyfriend can support your healing, but it's not the same.

Her entire introduction for all of episode 1 is about fatherhood. Not romance.

Season 1 was about romance for her, yes, but even then, they wanted to make sure you knew it wasn't supposed to be, not long term. That that was not the goal.

Episode One they said "this is what she needs", took it away from her, then supplemented it insufficiently and ended the season.

Season 2 she missed the supplement, not realizing she was slowly gaining what she actually needed. Season 3 she didn't need the supplement anymore, but she still wanted him. Then she lost what she needed, and she needed him to supplement again. In season 4, she goes back to the source and lets go of him. Finally chooses to blame him and actively denounces forgiveness of him for the first time. She returns to her boyfriend she wants, but doesn't need, and comes home to find her father.

She will be fine single, because she wants him in her life, but she doesn't need him that way, that's fulfilled elsewhere.

"Season 1 proves Mlvn" season 1 OPENED with "El's true need is a father figure. Don't believe anyone who says anything else, even us."

They literally PREFACED their love story oh my god, that's what it is.

They want you to meet her outside of romance so you know who she actually is. They purposefully introduced her to you outside of Mike.

And with a father. We did not know he was gonna die, or even that this show killed off characters, yet, meaning THEY PURPOSEFULLY SET US UP TO EXPECT HER SEASON ARC TO BE ABOUT EXCLUSIVELY FATHERHOOD

And romance? versus fatherhood? for an abused girl? They set us up to be disappointed, even just in the back of our minds, know that there was still something missing for her. By creating something for us to miss, giving us Benny and taking him away, just to make sure they left us with the feeling of a hole Mike couldn't fill. Just giving her Mike immediately would be an addition to what she had in our eyes. But they made sure that, in arc and what she needed, he was less than something to us.

And actually, they didn't even show her history with Brenner and we hadn't yet seen even the first flashback of her calling him "papa". But still, they conveyed to us as needed "the thing you should be rooting for for her here is a father figure".

(And then they repeatedly posed Hopper and Mike against each other, so we had to choose - and they had already taught us which to)

Even long before Mike couldn't be Hopper, before she even met him, Mike couldn't be Benny. He could beat Brenner. Anybody could. So it seems like enough at a glance of season 1. But they made sure that wasn't the bar. They gave us an actual goal post, so that no matter how cute these kids are, the whole season there's a tiny voice in the back of your head going "this twelve year old puppy love plot is super sweet.....but he isn't Benny".

[lune-moon-nuit]

This is clearly one of the best Eleven analysis I ever read !

Okay but let's talk about this as a beautifully accurate representation of where El was in her healing here

She was abused by a man. In her healing, however, she found safe figures: a single father, a boyfriend, and two male best friends.

She is in a safer situation now. BUT

She has a VERY REALISTIC aversion to other women! She sees Max here from the moment she first saw her through the window only as competition for male attention. This is INCREDIBLY realistic and amazing to be shown so. Because trauma symptoms like this do not disappear immediately with safety - that's the definition of trauma 'symptoms', which only become disordered when not needed.

In her environment in the lab, especially with the now-knowledge of her siblings, she was not only appeasing the highest power which was a man, but she was in constant competition for that attention. We also know now: she was losing in that competition. But even when her only memories were of being an isolated "only child" abuse victim, the symptoms also make sense - the combination of conscious and subconscious memory creating the same trauma response.

The stakes of failing to gain approval from a man may no longer be public humiliation, verbal abuse, imprisonment, assault, electrocution, or abuse of loved ones (referring to 001's electrocution), but that doesn't mean the instinctive response isn't still very much there.

A man is someone to be appeased. A man is someone you seek approval from. A woman is someone you compete with for their approval. Only one can win. She doesn't have to actively believe Mike will hurt her to feel a general sense of high stakes and threat from Max being in his life.

It's why her relationship with Max the following season and prioritizing not just Max but a woman's approval over a man's and his desires from her is SUCH a big milestone. Because in season 2, she sees Max as a threat. A threat to her remaining prioritized goal, which we can interpret as being what she is so adamant about as her goal in the beginning of the season: male attention.

In season 1, she had Mike's attention and was rewarded with it. The only times she lacked it, he yelled at her or ignored her. Not in a way that genuinely resembled Brenner so much as triggered it - much like her triggers relating to him in season 4. So regardless of whether or how she factors that in, she either quantifies the idea of lacking his attention as connecting with some level of danger or neglect OR she does not factor those memories in making something differently scary: unknown stakes.

If a person is abused by someone who treats them nice when they do something wrong and poorly when they don't and form a new relationship with someone who is safe but they have never severely messed up with that person, they will hold that fear until they mess up and it's okay - likely repeatedly. As the abuse would have been long-term, they need to reassociate the consequences of mistakes. This is much of what we see in El's fears about Mike in season 4 and what I've talked about: because they are one of the only relationships of any kind that have not "broken promises" severely up until this point, she has no data on what will happen if she does. She doesn't believe he will harm her, but she does hold the very clearly stated belief that lack of attention means lack of love, and further that she is unlovable. This is the same reason it was so important for her and Hopper to break all their rules in season 2 - to demonstrate to her that making mistakes is a safe thing for her to do, the consequences of which may be anger but not danger or abandonment.

So with that fear for her in mind, as we know it in general and as it applies to Mike and continues to through and well past season 2, let's talk about her goal of Mike's attention in season 2:

In season 2 episode 2, we see her crying when Mike gets up and leaves the walkie. Of course, she misses him, but we did not see this response before. She is fearing that she is losing him. It's after this point that she becomes increasingly desperate to see him, fighting Hopper harder, yelling and throwing things, before ignoring his warning of danger to break out and see him. The reason the scene with Max is so emotional for her is not because she never thought he would move on, but because she was recently starting to fear that he would. She felt him slipping away and was feeling an increasing urgency to it, that if she didn't act now he would move on from her. She checked in with him every day and cites later that she was given comfort from his daily calls, but he starts to get more self-berating in them to himself for trying in the first place...until the breaking point. And she was right. After that, Mike stops calling, as we know from the number of days she recites later. So after she got that giving up on her call on Halloween night, the next morning she argued with Hopper for the first time in the "when is soon?!" argument where she psychically throws his plate into him. The subtext of "on day 700? On day 800?!" is "We're on day 354 now and I'm already losing him. I'll be too late in a few days, let alone years." So she sneaks out to see him in an attempt to save him before he finally slips away. And what she sees, to her, is that she's too late. Completely out of her control, and driving her anger towards Hopper further, she missed her window, and she lost him. She lost his attention - to another girl. In her mind, if she returns now, he'll never love her again. That's what happens when you lose someone's attention: you're unlovable. So she leaves for Chicago indefinitely, for a time even seriously considering not returning, even for Mike. The only reason she does is because she thinks she can give him something.

But when she sees Mike, he is thrilled to see her. And when she sees Max, all Max is to her is the girl who almost stole him. Who would have, given a couple more days. Because she was raised on the idea that only one person can be loved at a time, the rest discarded, and that love is a competition that must be both won and maintained. Not only that, but that that competition is for a man's attention, therefore against other women.

Pre-season 1 El's life depends on whether she can achieve and maintain positive attention from a man. The stakes are high. In season 1, El is able to achieve positive attention from a man. The stakes are not high, but she has no way of knowing that. In fact, "a promise is something you can't break ever" likely interprets as reinforcing it to a traumatized mind. She also learns(this doesn't mean it's true) that the only way for her to maintain that attention is to be of service via her powers, as each time Mike is angry with her, she is able to regain it by making contact with Will or saving Mike using her powers. She has now learned that, based on the model she was raised on of love being something to be maintained, she is not lovable if she falls short of heroic. She ends season 1 with the ultimate heroic act: self-sacrifice.

In season 2, though she has Hopper, she is prioritizing her original validating male attention, Mike. Because Mike believes her dead, she feels powerless as she is unable to maintain the attention she cultivated from him. She cannot actively lose it either, so all she can hope to do is return to him before the slow fade goes all the way out. But she becomes increasingly desperate to catch him in time as urgency increased based on time-lapsed and his behaviors she's observed. His attention towards her is waning. She needs to get it back before it's lost. This is urgent to her and it is high stakes, because she's a thirteen year old in love? No. Because a man's attention was once life and death, and her body has not left that state, regardless of conscious beliefs about Mike. So she sneaks out despite the known danger - because in her traumatized body, the danger of losing a man's attention is equal if not surpassing to the risk of being seen. She thinks of losing Mike's attention if she doesn't go as an inevitability and being caught as a less likely risk, and if you think of the stakes of those situations as equal, the decision is clearer. So she goes, and she sees that she's too late. She has lost his attention. She is heartbroken and leaves. She fights with Hopper, she finds out about her mother and who she was or could have been and this is where that healing gets started. She prioritizes a woman - her mother. Then she prioritizes a woman - her sister. It is also incredibly important that Kali is the leader of the gang. Her approval is the most important, not Axl or anyone else's - who are first presented to her as the most intimidating, insulting and threatening her until Kali is a revealed as the true boss. She heavily considering not returning to the men who she considers to be lost to her: Hopper is angry with her, meaning she has lost his attention and approval, and Mike has moved on, meaning he would not care for her return. Hopper's apology is a huge part of it, because it is likely only the second she has ever received (Lucas) and the first elaboration of love. He teaches her for the first time in her life that anger is not a lack of love or punishment and that it can actually be based in love, though that does not make him less responsible, and most importantly, something she has never seen, he demonstrates capacity for guilt. He loves her enough to feel bad about hurting her. She's never had that before. Hurting has simply been an act to revoke love as purposeful punishment and the people who do it have stood by and repeated those actions. She then sees too that they are in need of her help. She now knows two things: Hopper does love her. Her powers make Mike love her. She returns - going to Will's house, not Mike's or home, with intention to save the day, not reunite. It seems from her surprised look that she didn't know Mike would be there, so we can also assume the case for Hopper, but likely only the Byers. She has returned to save the day, as is her value. After her reunions, she ignores Max. Because Max, to her, is solely a threat, as only one person can win Mike's attention and if Max is in her life, there's a risk that it isn't her, for which, as we've established, the stakes would be very high. Learning that Hopper's love for her is unconditional is not the same as learning that she is unconditionally lovable. To segue, though, Hopper apologizing in the car cements that fact for her in her relationship with Hopper: "I guess we broke our rule" - that making mistakes is okay and not a threat to her safety.

In season 3, however, she starts out being neutral about Max but not close. They seem to not interact much and just share a physical space together, as Max seems intimidated when El first approaches her one on one. The only reason for which is to regain a man's attention. El is happy at the start of the season because she sees Mike every day and is keeping his focus and has been consistently "every day for six months" as Hopper references. She feels that his attention is a secure thing. So when she loses it unexplained, she is very surprised and confused. The remaining stakes in this for her are very clear by the fact that she seeks advice from someone she dislikes after under one day of not having his attention. She goes to Max for advice on how to regain his attention. Max is also no longer a threat to her as she knows now Max is not pursuing Mike's attention. Max says she needs to relax for a day because giving him a taste of his own medicine will get him to understand and come back. And she suggests that if he doesn't act properly in response, she dump him. This IS huge for El when she follows through. It is an impulse she would have been very averse to before having the support of Max. She is starting to value women's attention more. But it is also true that it was merely an impulse. That night, she needs comfort when she's reminded that they're broken up (this is because she misses him, yes, but no action or emotion is untouched by trauma responses as an abuse survivor). Max tells her to not worry because he'll come crawling back any moment begging for her to come back. This is nice to her because it validates the healing idea she learned from Hopper last season: that she is missed and people who hurt her feel independent guilt. Though the breakup is big for her, we know it doesn't solve everything from her persistent symptoms in season 4. Because though progress, every step of the breakup so far is a tactic. It is an empty threat, just like Max makes to Lucas, to get Mike back. At this point, she has never truly believed that they will stay broken up. Which is also why a huge step in the season is her ANGER towards him when she sees that he is remorseless and expects HER to come back to HIM. She wants his attention, and it's better than nothing that he still wants hers, but she now has Hopper as a healthy comparison to raise her expectations. Her expectations have been raised to expect remorse for hurting her(huge!). So when he does come "crawling back" SHE DOESN'T LET HIM. Again, HUGE FOR HER! She even argues that maybe Hopper was right in suggesting they spend time apart. Of course, this too, is said in anger and not commitment, as many such things are in life. Because he did not apologize in earnest, he shifted blame to Hopper. He 'explained', but he did not apologize. We know it is said in anger not follow through because in the very next episode he offers an olive branch, subtly implying regret for his previous comment by making fun of himself for it, and she immediately looks at him with interest again, showing she never genuinely stopped wanting to be together. She is not ready to forego his approval, but is still major progress for her hold out on it until her standards are met and he has yet to fully apologize. She then overhears him say he loves her which steps EVERYTHING up and I would argue actually causes major regression for her. It is the classic moment of regression: there is something she has been slowly learning not to chase after...and she gets it. She got the thing she craved. But she still holds onto her growth in holding out for that apology that she gets in the mini-mart the following episode. She has communicated with him her needs - trust - and received an apology. In the apology, though, he attempted to tell her he loved her but they were interrupted - she knows this, she heard the attempt, but it seems that he intends to follow up himself at the next opportunity, then everything gets complicated, so she lets him initiate like he seems to want to on his own time.

(had to paragraph break bc tumblr gave me a warning)Then, she loses the only man in her life who she has confirmed unconditional love from. She no longer has that to return to. It's the last day and she's leaving without having Mike as her boyfriend again. Not previously mentioned, but that is also pertinent because in season 2, she was shown learning English from movies that idolize romantic love about all - even using the name Michael. She lacks her father's attention now and doesn't want to leave without Mike's to hold onto in her shift to complete unfamiliarity, so she gives him one last chance to do it himself, then decides to initiate on her own and tell him she loves him. She, naturally based on what she overheard, assumes that nerves are the only reason he hasn't said it/gotten back together, so this will solve them. To her, she has his attention again.

Pre-season 4, they have been writing consistent letters and are implied to talk on walkies when Mike has access to Dustin's radio, as El has a walkie in her room with her Mike-things. When it comes to letters, there is a maximum amount of attention you can get or give and she is getting it...almost. She's started to notice the pattern that, though she pointedly signs her letters "love" every time, he always signs "from". In retrospect, she realizes that the his last attempt to tell her he loves her was mere hours before it was first discovered that she lost her powers. She isn't the hero to him anymore, so, just she felt in season, she has stopped being lovable. Although in season 1, the tone was different. In season 1, it was "I can make myself lovable with my powers! I can get love I haven't had before!", but now it's "I have the ability to lose that love". Despite her personal efforts, losing her powers makes her incapable of maintaining his love, which she still believes she must do. She is also being bullied. Not only has she lost her powers, but she is failing socially. She still has Mike's attention, but like in season 2, though for different reasons, she fears that it is waning. She lies to him in the letters to maintain it and when he arrives, plans the entire day with the sole intention of winning him back/convincing him to love her, to the point of completely excluding Will from it: "I want today to just be about you and me". Because in this case, Will, too, is capable of stealing his attention from her, though she wouldn't blame him the way she did Max, she still protects herself from it. Because she believes that if he finds out, she will lose the last bit of his attention she had and he will discard her. Which is also why, even after being caught clear and red-handed, still she asks Angela to lie for her. Because this is still high stakes for her. We then see a direct confirmation when Mike is directly paralleled to Brenner in her flashback. But this is not the first time he is paralleled to Brenner. Mike has been a representation for the stakes with which she views male attention the entire series - which is why only Mike and Hopper are directly paralleled to Brenner, a Brenner parallel means high stakes attention - season 4 is just the first time we're seeing her when she's actually failed to attain it and can no longer assume she would have been fine. She had started to believe that she was lovable to him in season 3 as he expressed missing her when they broke up, but she now views her powers as the only thread causing that. He views her as "incredible", not lovable. Everything he 'loves' her for, she no longer is. And as Mike's cut line describes, she somewhat gives up here. But not in an independent way. In a resigned way. Not "I don't need your love", but "if you can't love me it's because no one can". So she leaves. She leaves to become lovable again.

And when she sees the first man to ever teach her she was worthless, she runs at first - of course, he represents danger on a base level. But then he tells her he is confident he can, to her mental translation, make her lovable again, and she goes with him willingly. Because at the end of the day, too, every moment spent trying to convince any man to love her was just an attempt to relive and rewrite her relationship with Brenner to convince him to. That opportunity is in front of her again, and she can't pass it up.

Because none of this was about Mike. And none of it was about Hopper. And none of it was about Max. It was about Brenner and her siblings. She has spent the entire series fighting for male attention and seeing others as competition for it without knowing why. Season 4 is about her learning way. In season 4, she uncovers and processes the memories that founded her belief that love must be repeatedly earned and maintained and the consequences for it not being are abuse and death. Now that she can point to the exact memories that taught uniquely her that, it no longer looks like a fact of life. And she can let it go. She can let him go.

She has someone to blame now. "I came her to find out if I was the monster. But now I know. It is not me. It is you." She has someone to blame.

It isn't her fault for failing to earn his love. Because love is not be earned. "Papa does not tell the truth". That was a lie he told her to get away with it. She has someone to blame now. Which also means she has someone to let go.

She's free. She reunites with Mike and he is just Mike to her. He is no longer a mirage of her abuser abandoning her over and over again. Will is just Will. He is not someone she'll be locked in a cage for not being able to be.

So when she said she was worried Brenner was right about it being soon, it is guilt towards Max only. Hypotheticals she could have done differently. But she says that to Mike as just Mike. And she goes to her room and she sees her dad as just her dad. And her mom isn't competing for her dad and her best friend isn't competing for her boyfriend and neither is her brother. Because she doesn't need it anymore. That's what not needing it is.

Because she never needed Mike to love her. She needed Papa to love her. She doesn't need that anymore, so Mike is what he always was. Not needed, but wanted. She never needed Mike. So not needing him now is good thing. It means he's just Mike to her <3.

[lune-moon-nuit]

I swear I love how you say everything so perfectly

A well-executed breakup between Mike and El should be grounded in emotional maturity and mutual understanding. By this point in the story, both characters have grown significantly, especially El, who has been learning to define herself beyond her powers and relationships. The breakup, then, shouldn’t feel abrupt or driven by drama, but rather by quiet realization: they’re becoming different people, discovering their actual identity/ feelings, and clinging to the version of love they had as kids no longer feels authentic.

Mike shouldn't be portrayed as someone who has “fallen out of love” suddenly or harshly. Instead, he should be shown wrestling with feelings he doesn't yet fully understand, particularly regarding Will. The key is emotional honesty. If Mike is open with El about feeling confused, about how much he still cares for her but senses something shifting inside him, rather senses his burried feelings carving themselves out with a knife, too hard to ignore now, he comes across as vulnerable rather than deceptive. He’s not rejecting her; he’s acknowledging that they’ve outgrown the version of love they once shared.

El, in turn, should be given emotional agency. She’s intuitive enough to sense that something is different, and if she responds not with rage but with reflection, recognizing that she, too, is changing, it makes the breakup feel mutual, even if it’s Mike who initiates it. Her sadness can coexist with her understanding. This allows both characters to walk away with dignity.

Importantly, the breakup shouldn't center on Will, it should center on Mike and El, and their evolution. Mike doesn’t need to say “I’m in love with Will” in that moment. What matters is that he’s honest about needing to figure out who he really is, and that El deserves someone who loves her with certainty. Later, his growing closeness to Will can emerge naturally, without making the breakup feel like a setup or betrayal.

Handled this way, Mike comes off as a young person learning how to be honest, both with others and with himself. And El, rather than being cast aside, is respected as someone worthy of real love and real honesty. The breakup, rather than being in a sad setting, would thus be portrayed in a realistic and mature way, making the audience (other than the hardcore Milkvans) sympathise and empathize, and move on from the break up. Thus valuing Mike and El’s deep connection that goes beyond just a false version of love they had once shared.

[I'm not sure if this BTS pic is the breakup scene, but it's definitely a heartwarming and genuine moment between them].

[lune-moon-nuit]

Feel like milevens fans who think like that should read this take cause they definitely didn't understand El

A common misconception has surfaced: that El would be devastated by a breakup, particularly if it leads to Mike and Will being together. However, this reading underestimates not just El’s emotional strength, but also her capacity for understanding, growth, and unconditional love.

I've already addressed how the Mileven breakup should be like, but I'd like to also address this very common misconception regarding El, which Milkvans have.

To assume that Eleven would be crushed by Mike choosing Will over her is to reduce her to someone defined solely by her romantic ties. But El’s journey from a girl locked away in a lab to a young woman navigating the complexity of human relationships has shown time and again that she is not fragile, she is, in fact, resilient. Her love for Mike is real, but it is not possessive. It stems from her first experiences of safety, friendship, and affection. And while it was foundational, it does not have to be final.

El cares for Mike deeply, and it is precisely because of that care that she would want him to be honest about who he is and what he feels. If Mike were to finally admit his romantic feelings for Will, El’s first instinct would not be bitterness, it would be understanding. Her love for Mike is rooted in empathy, not ego. She would not see it as betrayal, but as a painful truth that deserves compassion. Love, after all, doesn’t disappear when its form changes. It evolves. El’s bond with Mike would survive the breakup because it was never just about being boyfriend and girlfriend, it was about trust, protection, and shared survival.

Moreover, the narrative need for El to die or disappear in order for Mike and Will’s relationship to flourish is a false and deeply unnecessary trope. The idea that one character must be sacrificed so that another love can be “valid” or realized does a disservice to everyone involved. El does not need to be removed from the picture for Mike and Will to come together. Her existence does not threaten their happiness; rather, her continued growth alongside their’s, reflects a richer, more nuanced emotional reality. Real love does not require erasure, it allows space.

El’s power has always been symbolic of more than just her abilities. It represents agency, choice, and transformation. She is not a tragic heroine fated to be cast aside for someone else’s fulfillment. She is her own person, capable of friendship, of forgiveness, of redefining what love means in her own life. The beauty of her story is not in sacrifice but in evolution, how she chooses to keep moving forward, stronger and more whole each time.

In a future where Mike and Will find the courage to be together, El would not be broken. She would be proud of them, grateful for her time with Mike, and open to the possibilities ahead. Her strength lies not in how tightly she holds on, but in how gracefully she lets go when it’s time. And in that, she proves what Stranger Things has always suggested: love is most powerful not when it’s claimed, but when it’s freely given- even in goodbyes.

Rather than a love triangle, I see here, three friends who understand and deeply care for each other.

[lune-moon-nuit]

Louder

Will Byers being gay did not come out of nowhere.

Will Byers’ arc in Stranger Things has always existed under layers- supernatural, psychological, and emotional. But as the show has matured, so has its subtle, then increasingly clear portrayal of Will’s queerness. More than just a subplot, Will’s gay awakening has become one of the most tender and painful through-lines in the story, marked by early trauma, internalized fear, and eventually, the transformative power of love.

Will was labeled “queer,” “a fag,” and “different” before he had the words to understand his identity. The bullying he endured, especially from school peers and even from within the broader social fabric of Hawkins... was rooted in the assumption that there was something wrong with him. When you're a child hearing those words before you've even started to explore your own identity, the shame doesn’t just come from the outside, it plants itself inside you.

So when Will started to feel something deeper than friendship for Mike Wheeler, that realization didn’t come with clarity. It came with fear. Imagine being a boy who was told his whole life that he was "weird", then discovering that those slurs weren’t completely off-base, just cruelly misused. Will’s attraction to Mike must have felt, at first, like confirmation of the very thing he’d tried to suppress. That’s not the liberation of coming out, it’s the confusion of recognizing the truth in the things that hurt you.

Will’s gay awakening isn’t loud or sudden. It’s in the small things. In how he never shows interest in girls, while his friends start to date and explore. In how he clings to childhood, not because he’s immature, but because growing up means confronting feelings he’s terrified of. The group’s drift, especially Mike’s distance, hits Will the hardest because Mike isn't just a best friend. He’s the person Will feels safest with, the one he looks at a little too long, the one whose approval and attention mean everything.

We see it in Season 3 and especially in Season 4: the way Will tries to talk to Mike, his heartbreak when Mike doesn’t notice his efforts, and the devastating scene in the van when he essentially confesses his feelings through Eleven, pretending to talk about her so he can say how he feels. That’s not just repression, it’s survival. It’s the only way he knows how to be seen without being rejected.

And still, Mike makes Will feel reassured. He’s the anchor, the unspoken "home" Will longs for. Even when Mike doesn’t understand fully, Will’s love is constant. It's patient, quiet and hopeful.

But Will Byers isn’t just a symbol of pain. His journey demands more than tragedy. He’s a character who deserves joy, wholeness, and, yes, a real, reciprocated love. And that’s why a happy ending with Mike isn’t just wishful thinking. It feels earned. Necessary.

Mike has shown increasing signs of emotional maturity, and there’s every reason to believe that as he continues to grow, he’ll realize that what he shares with Will is deeper and more lasting than what he’s had with Eleven. That doesn’t mean he never loved El, it means that his “romantic” love for El had been premature and not real (in other words, he had never loved El romantically). Will has always seen Mike, not as a hero or a chosen one, but as a person. That’s the kind of love that builds a future.

A true resolution to Will’s arc would mean seeing him not just survive Hawkins, but thrive in spite of it. It means seeing the boy who was told he was broken discover that he was always whole. It means being loved for exactly who he is, not in spite of it.

Will’s gay journey isn’t neat or romanticized. It’s real. It’s marked by fear, silence, repression, and longing. But it also carries hope, hope that the love he gives will one day return to him fully. Hope that the words once used to hurt him will never define him. And hope that the queer kid who was once lost in the Upside Down, physically and emotionally, will finally get to come home, not just to Hawkins, but to love.

And that love? It's always been Mike.

[lune-moon-nuit]

What a brilliant take about Will !

Will’s Expression Through Art:

Will Byers is often seen as the quiet heart of the group — a boy marked by trauma, mystery, and a deep sensitivity that sets him apart. Among the many traits that define Will, his passion for drawing stands out not merely as a hobby, but as a profound form of expression, a language he uses when words fail. For someone introverted and emotionally reserved, art becomes Will’s most honest voice, a way to communicate his fears, dreams, and even his love.

Will’s introversion isn’t a sign of emotional emptiness, but rather of emotional depth. He feels deeply but struggles to articulate those feelings aloud. Drawing, then, becomes his emotional release valve, not a vent area, rather an area of expression. Unlike the spoken word, which demands vulnerability in real time, art offers Will a space where he can reflect, process, and convey what lies within him without fear of immediate judgment or misunderstanding. His sketchbook becomes a diary, one not filled with written confessions, but with coded emotion, raw imagery, and subconscious truths.

This expressive depth is clearest when Will draws the darkest corners of his experience, especially his connection to the Upside Down. These are not just illustrations of monsters; they are visual representations of his internal battles. By drawing them, Will confronts the shadowy parts of himself and the trauma that has haunted him since Season 1. He doesn’t shy away from depicting fear, possession, or darkness, suggesting that drawing is also a way for him to reclaim power over the parts of his life that once left him powerless.

At the same time, Will’s drawings are also acts of love and remembrance. After Bob’s death, Will quietly drew a picture of him. This drawing, though shown only briefly, in a clip in Season 2, speaks volumes: it is how Will processes grief, how he pays respect, and how he ensures that Bob lives on in some small way through his art.

One of the most emotionally charged moments in the series is Will’s painting for Mike, which he presents under the guise of El’s creation. The painting, showing the party in heroic unity with Mike at the center, is more than a gift—it's a coded confession. Will uses symbolism to express what he cannot say aloud: his love, admiration, and need for Mike’s validation. It’s telling that he pours so much care and precision into this piece. Every stroke is deliberate, each figure a symbol of his devotion and longing. Through this painting, Will communicates not only how he sees Mike, but also how he wishes Mike could see him.

This indirect confession reveals both Will’s courage and his constraints. He may lack the confidence to speak his truth, but through his art, he still finds a way to share it. His use of art is not avoidance, it’s vulnerability in its purest, safest form. By putting his emotions onto paper, Will is both shielding himself and baring his soul.

In many ways, Will's drawings act as bridges, connecting his inner world to the outer one, linking him to the people he loves, and giving voice to the silence that defines so much of his character. For Will, drawing isn’t a pastime. It’s survival. It's identity. It's love. And through it, we see not only the depths of his pain but the beauty and strength of a boy learning to speak in his own way.

[lune-moon-nuit]

You are so right

what always baffles me about the gen audience for stranger things is how popular a character billy became, because he’s the exact antithesis to the themes this show embodies — being weird, being different, being strange — and he’s just absolutely, unwaveringly rancid for most of his screentime. he’s bigoted and abusive and not once does that aspect of his character change, excluding when he’s literally brainwashed by an eldritch hivemind and putting on the appearance of normalcy (a.k.a., altruism and genuine goodheartedness) for heather’s family

i’m not the world’s biggest fan of steve either admittedly (i don’t hate him, he’s just not my cup of tea) but at least steve got a decent redemption arc — he went from being coded as queerphobic to accepting robin’s queerness and continuing to befriend her, and he went from targeting jonathan for his oddities in his bullying escapades to associating with an entire group of odd societal outcasts as his closest friends

but billy didn’t get that treatment — he never showed an inkling of kindness towards max, he never relented in his blatant racism towards lucas, and he never improved himself for the better like steve managed to. billy is a character with a complicated history and i absolutely hurt for the younger version of him that endured a deluge of abuse at the hands of his stepfather, but those traumas do not excuse the person he turned out to be — and they don’t justify the gen audience adoring and glorifying him to the extent that they do, either

and, not to make everything about byler on this blog — but this is seriously another reason why i so badly want them to become canon. there’s been such an obvious rise in conservatism recently (both in real-world social politics and the scope of online fandom culture) and it absolutely pains me to see people devaluing the validity of a ship for no reason other than the fact that it’s a queer pairing, especially when those same people champion for such hateful characters like billy hargrove, and especially when those same people claim to enthuse a show whose sole aim is to uplift the abnormal and the oppressed

the canonisation of byler in a mainstream series like stranger things would be such a necessary, impactful fuck-you to the current state of the world — it’d make queer kids and adults alike feel seen, and it’d make the queerphobic elite remarkably uncomfortable, which are both so needed right now. because canonising byler isn’t just about affirming a longtime ship — it’s also about showing queer people that they don’t need to suppress their feelings to survive - that it’s okay to love who you love, that it’s okay to want reciprocation, and that it’s okay to be queer

in conclusion - gen audience stranger things fans adoring billy hargrove so deeply is reflective of rising conservatism in media and that’s precisely why we need more queer representation. maybe i’m being that one friend who’s too woke rn but i’m also really tired of seeing gay people in this fandom and in st shipping culture get death threats on the daily when that’s like entirely the opposite of what the show stands for

[lune-moon-nuit]

True

Wait... they're onto something

vitaelsun on tiktok!

[lune-moon-nuit]

Yep yep Tell them

The shows evolution and popularity has had an interesting effect on the topic of Byler.

It’s undeniable that the show has grown massively. I remember the first two seasons feeling small and intimate resembling that of a supernatural mystery thriller. A lot of that was due to budget and the age of the actors but the writing, direction and acting was (and still is) excellent.

As we know Wills character description and chemistry with Mikes character was planned from the beginning. The themes of friendship, love, nerds to hero’s and coming of age identity struggles have always been there. By the way identity struggle definitely includes homosexuality.

By the time we get to season 4 & 5 the shows budget, actors ages and the success of the show has blown up. It feels like a Marvel movie in a lot of respects. It’s emphasis of being “epic” in season 4 definitely made waves across social media. I think this was the turning point because all of a sudden a much larger wave of action type audience members flocked to tik tok and YouTube to film their reactions. I think some people love the show because of its spectacle and for a lack of a better term they’re “Marvel bros.” And now the intended audience has expanded. Obsessing over the action but unable to see the queer coding. I can’t say that all of them are straight watchers but so many commenters on social media who cover the show don’t seem to like the idea of Byler because “Mike just isn’t gay at all!”

I can’t help but wonder how the show would feel if it wasn’t injected with such a massive budget. (I’m not complaining. I love season 4. Just curious)

The shows success has made these characters massively popular when ironically the show is about unpopular kids who find strength from each other.

“Conformity is killing the kids” and “normal is just a raging psychopath.” They keep telling us!

I do believe that the duffer brothers have a solid understanding of their show and it’s intended themes and done well I think more people will become Byler shippers in the end. Especially when it’s displayed openly.

One last thing. There’s nothing wrong with the people who genuinely love Mileven and emotionally connect with them. I’m mostly talking about the anti byler people who are worried about “wokeness” or think it’s fan service or think it’s rushed or even disgusted by two boys kissing on their screen.