#* &. ted wheeler.

[lavenderstobins]

stranger tweets part 7

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all previous parts: [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 5.5]

[bylergetonefree]

imma gonna say it. mike wheeler is allowed to be a bitch to will one (1) time in s5. and i need it to be in front of joyce, who has only ever known mike as the boy who slept on will’s floor, followed him and nearly died at the lab, cared for him, and loved him so gently his entire life. i need joyce to take will aside, ask him what happened. what changed. i need will to give a noncommittal answer. i need joyce to then corner mike and ask him, in the kindest but most direct way possible, why he stopped loving her son. i need mike to misunderstand, to think she knows. i need him to tell her everything. i need him to break down and for her to hold him and tell him it’s going to be okay. i need joyce byers to give mike wheeler the courage to to love her son freely

[gayofthefae]

"Mike and Nancy can't say I love you because of their parents," so close, Mike and Nancy can't say I love you in relationships that resemble their parents'.

[mikeslawyer]

TIRED of the ted wheeler deeply homophobic agenda. this man simply does not care! yes, it is the 80s so he’s probably casually ignorant, maybe makes a few offhanded comments but he is not the enemy of queer people. he is just casually homophobic, like a lot of people during that time but he genuinely cannot be bothered to like - actively root against queer people. he’s not lonnie.

he just wants to be left alone and for some reason there’s always drama in his house. his daughter is breaking up and getting together with her boyfriend, getting into fights, his son has some sort of a dark secret that ted could not be bothered to care about, his wife is cheating on him with boys that are their daughter’s age. and ted just wants to be left alone.

all he wants is to read his newspaper in peace at the dinner table, but never gets to because there is always something.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

If Will is really living with the Wheelers, I want to see Ted Wheeler be an unwitting instigator of drama.

I want Karen to be ready for a fight when she brings up the idea of Will staying with them to Ted, only for him to be all for it because they're better together.

I want him to have a soft spot for Will since he's the quietest and most polite of Mike's friends.

I want him to comment that to Will that he's glad he's s back because Mike has been unbearable in his absence.

I want him to mention that he's glad Mike isn't adding daily long distance charges to the phone bill. (IIRC, long distance phone rates applied even if nobody answered.)

I want him to make a joking-but-not-really comment at Mike being happier with his sweetie pie back that confuses Will because he doesn't think Ted knows about El.

Maybe this is just me being tired of fans assuming he'd not like Will for being gay or being against their relationship. I dunno. I just like the idea of Ted appreciating Will because of the positive impact he has on his son, leading to him being all for them being together.

[kurtkankle]

it’s time for… more fruity four text posts!

[doriandrifting]

Ted Wheeler sees the Byers and says, “Thank god you folks are back. Between the two of these kids, I thought I was going to have to take out a second mortgage just to afford my phone bill,” and has absolutely no idea the chaos he has just unleashed.

[conflictofthemind]

Thoughts on "Escape from Camazotz"

Oppressive Suburbia, Conformity, and Season 5 Themes

I've long thought that a major focus of Season 5 will be the contrast between the families of The Wheelers and The Byers, and exploring how non-traditional family environments can be freeing vs the oppressive structure of the nuclear family.

In a Wrinkle In Time, Camazotz is a planet controlled by the big bad of the book, the "IT", who forces the citizens into a conformity that resembles American suburbia. All of the houses the same, the citizens the same, doing the same things at the same time without individual identity. Without anything different. Different means a lot of things, but with Stranger Things dropping different in reference to Will's identity and the presumable themes of this season, it will heavily codify as queerness and how it threatens the cisheterosexual family model.

Henry was raised in the 1950s, a decade still revered by conservatives for it's traditional family dynamics that supposedly were the peak of culture and happiness for all. That was all a lie, of course, and Henry knew so as he shows to Nancy and Eleven during his monologue. The second most conservative decade aside from the 1950s in American society is widely considered to be the 1980s.

The Creels will serve in parallel to The Wheelers; the worst example of what they could become and the damage that this type of family could do to a child that is different in any way. Notice how Vecna selectively shows Nancy visions of The Wheelers dying, but not anyone else she may consider family or friends (like Jonathan).

That is; unless they change their ways and come together as a healthy functioning family facing their traumas, The Wheelers will be toast.

Karen has been moved up to a main character role this season. Ted's actor says the father starts to show up more for Holly (hold that) and realizes he wants to act differently. Holly has been recast. Finn has said Mike goes on a much more personal journey this season, and steps up as a leader.

Oh, also: the catalyst for all of this is that Holly goes missing. The contrast will help show how the Byers (including El and Hopper here) were able to pull together and help solve Will's disappearance, versus how the Wheelers as a closed off nuclear family grapple with Holly's vanishing.

Each of the Byers is in some kind of a non-1950s conformist relationship, but particularly Will (not in one now but we all know he will be). I think El might represent, after she breaks up with Mike, the fear of the unmarried woman being satisfied without a husband. The above shot really emphasizes my point.

I predict that Will will end up coming out to his family rather early on, and we will see all of them immediately accept him with little surprise or push-back. Will is a visible gay man who comes from an open minded non traditional family (divorced, non-married, adoptive) that is willing to have honest conversations.

But this theme will place the most focus on the Wheelers. Mike is the main character of said family and this will particularly focus on his arc, and his acceptance of his queerness in the midst of suburban conformity.

He is not visible, he comes from a Reagan-supporting family who don't communicate with each other. He is not particularly close with his family like Will is. He pushes his feelings down and tries his damn hardest to be normal despite it all. His trauma hasn't really been addressed at all. He is falling back into his usual habits - the one thing he dared to do different (grow his hair long) has gone back to how it was.

It's not all doom and gloom though. This season above all will be a redemption arc of the American nuclear family, how they choose to escape their conformity and learn to be there for each other, thus overpowering Vecna. Not that the Wheelers are going to end this personally.

"Great, more hysteria. Just what we need". "It's the news, now indistinguishable from the tabloids".

[katimanki]

From Hate When I Sin by @foodiewithdahoodie 💖🫶🏻

When I started this fic and read the first scene, I had to put my phone down, grab my iPad and sketch it out immediately!!

[tender-emotional-music]

Dustin and Ted’s little feud is one of my favourite background subplots of stranger things, btw

[samgelina-jolie]

Stranger things + headlines (6/?)

[trvbblemaker]

can’t wait until “our son with a girl?” becomes “our son with a boy???”

[squash1]

here’s to being there.

[the anthropocene reviewed by john green / stranger things / the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater / käthe kollwitz “the people” / ted lasso / in memoriam by alice winn / sex education / frog and toad]

[kurtkankle]

[will80sbyers]

Ted/Mike/Steve parallels

[cluelessbees]

I think it’s crazy how like— in this scene you can see Mike’s arm reach out to Will whilst he’s in his Upside Down episode

Especially because- when he gets those visions everyone disappears

And it’s not like Will broke out of the vision first and Mike just came along- NO Mike’s arm is in the vision he’s still enduring it when Mike comes to find him.

So like- what I’m saying is, Mike is the one who pulled Will out of the trance/vision and can probably do the same with Vecna 😌