makeshift-wizard - Tumblr blog

[makeshift-wizard]

i love will but he has a tendency to bottle up his bitterness until it finally spews out of him. of course mike would get mad at him in S3; he wasn't taking mike's problems seriously. of course mike would get mad at him in S4; he wasn't keeping in touch and then rolled his eyes and moped the first day mike arrived for vacation. like mike didn't hug him so that excuses his behavior the rest of the day?

we feel sympathy for will because we know he is going through something and because of his past trauma. but that doesn't excuse how badly he also treated mike during these moments. like idk it's begun to really annoy me now how much people minimize mike's problems to sympathize with will's.

[makeshift-wizard]

The thing about car-dependency is that… it sucks for people without a car. Big news, right. But, it’s not like that incentive curve is something we can just ignore. When our desire or ability to leave our house at all is conditional on being in a car, that affects all of our behaviour on every level.

Kids are the prototypical ‘person without a car’, and in a car-dependent area, they become dependent on their parents. In a normal, walkable city or suburb, children walk on their own to school, they cycle, they take the bus. Instead of needing to get parental approval - and enough enthusiasm to dedicate the time - to be shuttled around to any given activity, children walk to the park, or to a friend’s house. Even in rural areas, with the infrastructure, children will cycle to school. In a car-dependent suburb, a child is trapped in a single-family McMansion on the edge of town, forced to beg their parents to be able to go anywhere, always under supervision - is it any wonder they’d rather stay inside?

Even in a city, if it’s car-dependent, this is still an issue. When the roads are 100-decibel, 6-lane monstrosities, with cyclists expected to intermingle with traffic, and the busses stuck in the exact same jam, kids aren’t going to be able to get anywhere, assuming their parents even let them cross the street. This isn’t just about proximity, it’s fundamentally related to safety. Car-dependent places are a lot more dangerous to be in, on account of all the cars, so parents feel it’s safer for their kid to be in one of those cars. To boot, when everyone’s in a car, there are less people around, less people who can notice someone in trouble, less people who can help. When places are built with the assumption that everyone will have a car, they become places for cars, which humans can stupidly venture into.

This doesn’t just apply to children. We are all, at some point or another, a ‘person without a car’ - in fact, we’re a ‘person without a car’ most of the time, until we get into one. A lot of people would prefer to remain that way; driving a car is stressful, it takes a lot of effort and concentration, and not everyone likes it at 6AM. But, when your environment is built with the assumption you’re inside a soundproof, crash-proof metal box, that becomes a requirement. The second you’re outside of those conditions, scurrying across deafening, hot tarmac, and dodging heavy-duty pickup trucks (carrying solely one guy and his starbucks order), of course you’d decide that not being in a car sucks. But, the thing is, it’s designing for cars that made it suck, even for the car-drivers.

A place designed for cars, a place that people cannot walk, or cycle, or take public transit through, is a place full of cars - you are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic. Studies have shown that the average speed of car traffic, over sufficient time, is completely unrelated to the thoroughfare of roads. Eventually, because of induced demand, the new seven-lane arterial road will have exactly the same congestion as the two-lane it replaced. The one factor that sharply determines how slow road traffic gets is, listen to this, the speed of non-car travel. It is solely when alternatives become faster that people stop driving and free up traffic. Shutting down main street, only allowing buses through, would drastically increase the speed of the rest of the road network - because each of those buses is 40 cars not in traffic. If you like driving, you should want as many people as possible who don’t want to drive to stop doing it - and whoever you are, you should want to be able to travel without depending on cars.

When I was in the biggest depressive slump of my life, and I could barely get out of bed, I still went shopping for food nearly every day, and even traveled to visit my partner. The supermarket was 10 meters out the door of my apartment, and I could walk five minutes to either train station if I had to. It was peaceful and quiet outside. My disabled mother doesn’t like living in cities, but she loves public transit, and will always take a train ride over a long, tiring car journey - and when every store doesn’t need a parking lot twice as big as itself, whatever walking she does have to do is over a much shorter distance. When I’ve had to call an ambulance in a ‘car-hostile’ place, it has arrived inconceivably faster, on those clear roads, than when sitting in the traffic of the highway-lined carpark that makes up so many cities.

Car dependency sucks for everyone, including car drivers, but it sucks the worst for people already suffering. It strips you of independence, and forces you into a box you might not fit in - and I haven’t even touched on pollution. Car-dependency makes cities and suburbs into dangerous, stressful places, devoid of everyone except the most desperate. The only people it benefits are, really, the CEOs of car companies.

[makeshift-wizard]

yknow sometimes i just want to talk about mike outside of shipping but frankly i dont think many ppl care about him if its not relevant to byler or mileven. 

[makeshift-wizard]

Alright! Here we go: The Five Tenets of Mike Wheeler

a.k.a my personal foundations when I analyze our favorite conundrum

He wants to be special.

examples: when Mike says Dustin's lack of collarbones make him akin to a superhero in S1, when Mike tells Will he's like a superspy in S2. He loves pointing out what makes his people special because that's something he values.

possible origin: i mean, look at his upbringing. As averagely middle-class American as it can be.

follow through: this is why he plays DnD. this is why he gets together with El. El's biggest draw to Mike is her superpowers, the fact that she's a girl just gives us the reason why he believes his love is romantic

He wants to be needed

examples: S1 and S2 Mike displays this best.

fall-out: He despairs when he thinks he can't even be the Lois Lane to El's Superman.

follow-through: How happy he becomes when Will says El -- actually Will -- will always need him.

Love = Loss

example: "I love her and I can't lose her again!"

Possible origin: Will vanishing in S1.

Count the many times he has lost Will and El throughout the series

Follow-through: his inability to say ILY. His actual monologue. Him being weird to Will at the start of S4.

Belief that he is in the right

Example: His refusal to apologize to Lucas in S1. His contempt for authority.

Follow-through: Dilly-dallying about apologizing to El in S3. Mike "You're being ridiculous!" Wheeler, Mike "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" Wheeler

Will is his highest priority

Example: Mike in S1 and S2. Mike apologizing to Will first in S3 and S4

Follow through: Mike believing Will's words over El's in S4 (re: painting scene). This is why he believes Will when Will says El commissioned the painting and all those other things.

Link to my S4 Mike Retrospective a.k.a how I got to these tenets at all

[makeshift-wizard]

i wonder if i block ONE of those weird baity mileven anons i keep getting, if theyll stop entirely because its just the same person obsessed with being garbage

[makeshift-wizard]

we could have gotten a proper coming out scene, or more screentime for cali gang. instead theres things like 20 minutes of brenner colouring with crayons and doing crosswords, and henry talking at a child for nearly an hour. this season has so much filler its embarrassing

[makeshift-wizard]

like some people just don’t understand the fundamental differences that Jonathan lives with that can make him appear less sympathetic than Steve or Nancy because he is truly and deeply different. like he was raised by an abusive father and after the divorce he was heavily parentified. Joyce tried her best but it’s clear that Jonathan regularly watched Will, picked up shifts to pay the bills, worked while attending school, took over parenting aspects such as pep talks and emotional support, regularly made breakfast or dinner, and didn’t seem overly surprised that he was the one responsible for planning the funeral while Joyce was convinced (rightfully) that Will was alive. and that’s just season 1!! no wonder he didn’t have time to make friends or be happy, he spent his whole life with responsibilities thrust onto him to keep his family afloat, and he does it with little complaint until he reaches a breaking point.

Jonathan is poor. He doesn’t have the financial support or options that Nancy or Steve have. He cannot afford to go to a different college with Nancy and he is scared to leave Will and Joyce and now El because he has been living life as a parental figure for years. Being poor when people you love aren’t is embarrassing and it can be very alienating especially because of the shame that goes with it. His self medicating with weed and avoiding his problems in my opinion is symptomatic of depression because he feels trapped but he can’t afford to get out and he’s afraid of abandoning Will and Joyce just like Lonnie did.

It’s clear that the moment things got bad, Jonathan took back on the role of big brother, father, practical and protective. He immediately realized what his absence had done to Will, which likely reaffirms his fear of leaving Will for any form of college and not being there. He took care of Will and El and was able to make it back to Hawkins. But no matter where his plot goes, being raised with an abusive absent father, being parentified at a young age, and being poor will always influence his decision making - which adds layers to his sometimes confusing and offputting behavior.

I really hope that while Nancy is allowed to express rightful feelings of abandonment, the show doesn’t gloss over the affects that being poor has had on his life and choices. Jonathan deserves to have that acknowledged.

[makeshift-wizard]

noah hasnt really said anything that the lgbts watching this show didnt already know but its so wild that it takes him literally having to confirm it in a magazine interview for ppl to finally get it. like wheres that post where the person was like, this is why you need to make your queer characters explicitly queer because straight viewers will always find a reason and a way to erase your existence.

i give noah his flowers for acting his ass off but im sorry season 4 was just not enough. straight writers will never do enough and that's just A Fact™️

[makeshift-wizard]

the fact that they only added the jonathan and will scene AFTER seeing noah and charlie act in the van truly lets me know that the duffers really werent thinking of wills sexuality as anything more than a device. like thank god for noah because i truly dont think those two straight white men understand the shittiness of their writing

[makeshift-wizard]

im not even a popular byler, why do i keep getting those random ass mileven chainmail asks

[makeshift-wizard]

i am once again asking you all to believe me when i say finn wolfhard is a gay operative.

[makeshift-wizard]

I don’t think there’s enough time to make Byler happen in the last season :( What do you think? But at least i hope that even without Mike,Will is gonna find happiness :’)

to be honest, if they wrote it correctly there could be enough time for anything. but who knows with this writing staff, really. but it's interesting that you say "even without mike" because in my mind even if there's no romantic endgame for byler, they're still best friends so i can't actually imagine will and mike NOT being without each other in the future. it's not like if byler doesn't happen that will and mike will suddenly stop talking to each other forever.

regardless i think making will miserable in the end would go against the theme of their show, so i agree with you there

[makeshift-wizard]

tbh i don’t even care if the duffers come thru with byler in the end. i STILL think they need to be bullied.

[makeshift-wizard]

“They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and that feels particularly true for Mike and El” this looks like a canon thing to me 😕

sorry im not sure where this quote is from, i don't really read or interact with anything outside the show. if it was the duffers, then they truly are more delusional than i first thought. because nothing (aside from that contentious and highly debated monologue) they've written for mike and eleven has done anything but undermine their relationship for the last two seasons.

[makeshift-wizard]

will dying at this point makes a lot of sense also he is so miserable. he’s better off dead.

yknow just because you have the ability to type words into a little box on the internet doesn't make you intelligent. a monkey could do what you do given enough time.

[makeshift-wizard]

the no new characters thing makes me so scared bc i just want will to find peace and be able to love someone if byler doesnt work out so now its rly all or nothing

tbh i'd rather have a nothing than a half-baked love interest introduced at the last minute (and im counting the entirety of season 5 as last minute tbh) as lip service. in my opinion it's too late to introduce someone, especially since they actually dont want to do a dozen 90 minute episodes like they SHOULD.

straight ppl write queer characters so offensively, i'd rather just the offense of will ending the show alone but alive and happy than given some random person as an afterthought. because unfortunately, the way they've written this show, anyone other than mike is literally always gonna be an afterthought now.

but a bunch of people have said this already, i think. it's not even that the duffers are cowards. they're so heterosexual, our stories are tertiary at best so yknow. it truly is all or nothing.

[makeshift-wizard]

Cali BTS