#billie giving in to what she thinks they both rlly want and need bc she wont be able to again. billie thinking this will cement her

[deathlonging]

kind of horrifying but also freeing how with enough time to let it simmer you can come to accept anything

[lovebvni]

holaaa!! (dr rant + just an appreciation post)

(TW SLIGHT HINT TO GROOMING)

soo i’m shifting soon and i decided that im going to make my first album when i get there (LIKE START JT, DUDE. START IT. IM SO EXCITED) there’s going to b an ep i’m going to finalize when i get there and it will be released on the 26th of the month i get there (as it is kinda a diss on a MAN who was 26 when we dated… i was a minor still.)

i’m also gonna make a family tree because i’m really bored (and i also kinda js wanna see all my siblings yk? im gonna draw them all soon bc like AUGH AJAJDKDJ I MISS THEM!!!)

omgz i’m so excited dude!!

(appreciation below!!)

also i saw billie eilish in my dream last night. one of the funniest and sweetest people i know 😭 SHARK WAS ALSO IN THAT DREAM HES SO SWEET ‼️‼️ god i wish i could hug them today, just right now. yall don’t understand how much billie and finneas have been through together, and im so proud of how far they made it. i love you both, and although you won’t see this post in this reality, i know you will when we r together :DDD u guys make me so happy, so inspired, and just a better person overall. also huge thank you to billie in helping me with directing my music videos and being featured in one of my favorite songs — ripple effect. thank you finneas for just 😭 for keeping her alive, giving her a passion, and being so protective and supportive of her.

i’m so excited to b friends w both of them n js talk to them daily — it’s so fun.

i’m also super duper excited to meet one of my closest friends — nile — in person finally!!!! it’s been like 3 years of shifting together, and i know she’s excited too. i know she’s reading this, btw so i love u sm nile and thank u for being such a great and perfect friend throughout this whole journey. i truly don’t think i would still be kicking without you. i owe you the world, and i know you’re going to be blessed with many MANY things in the coming months, and the years following will be some of your best, but that’s only a taste of what is truly to come.

i’m so proud of you, and i’m also so round of everyone that has been clinging onto shifting even though it hurts. i’m always here for you. i love you all so so much. i want the best for you, and i know you’re going to get it. i’m always here to help in ANY way i can. ask me anything, i promise you i will answer with the wisdom God and the universe has given me!!

i cannot express my gratitude to my father, loki, enough. i don’t know how to even put it into words. he’s been there at my hardest, he’s been there at my best. i don’t think i would actually even be this far without him either. he’s one of the silliest and sweetest people ive ever met. i can’t believe he’s my FATHER you guys!! ITS SO COOL AUGHH

i also have so many people here i need to thank, there’s more that i can think of right now but just know i love and appreciate every one of you guys.

staring with @smellofemale!! you were such a sign when i met you. i don’t think i’ve met a christian shifter — you’re the only one i still talk to if i have! im just so so sooo blessed to have met you. i don’t know what to say, dude! i love you so much. you’re so sweet, so kind, and so inspiring. i love you!

@eneablack although you’re one of my newest friends, you’re another really really inspirational one. you’re so open about your struggles with shifting, even though you’ve had success time and time again. it shows me and many others how shifting sometimes is a hard thing to get used too, even with successes under your belt!

@daisys-reality! if you don’t know them, FOLLOW IMMEDIATELY PLEASE OMGGJAJSN she gives some of the best and most accurate readings i could ever ask for. also her drs (specifically her mermaid one) have inspired me so much!!

@kanachaka UR AO COOL BRO I JS LOVE SEEING UR POSTS AJSJDKDJD

@kazylynn i love u sm!! u rlly show me i can be an inspiration to others, and that’s something i’ve hoped for all my life. i want to be a good, helpful person — and i love you for showing me i can be.

@babybearthepsychic a few months ago you gave me a free reading that was just so accurate and so real. i don’t know if i would still be on this spiritual journey without it, because i was at one of my hardest points then. i cannot believe how just truly accurate and kind you are. i love you so much, you’re doing amazing. i wish i could give you the biggest hug, and i could donate like a million dollars to u rn but i literally don’t have a job 😭

@zipperrants i don’t think i rlly need to explain this… dude i thought u we’re so cool even when u we’re js interacting with @maddies-chronicles and i rlly wanted to interact w u so bad but i was so so scared bro!! and thank u hale for giving me the opportunity to meet them!!

@accidentalshifter YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW MANY PEOPLE U REPRESENT IN THIS RESLITY — YOURE ONE OF THE FIRSR ADULT SHIFTERS I SAW ON HERR AND IM SO SO SO SO SOOO FUCKING HQPPY YOURE SO OPEN ABOUT IT! you’re just so free and it’s beautiful. i love you so much

and there are so many more but i just.. im gonna cry i love you all tooo much.. please know u all mean so much to me and i can’t wait to tell u so many stories when i get back, and help u guys shift. i am working so hard to post more, and i pray this post can help me become more active.

so so so much love, to everyone in this community, you’re so wonderful. may the gods bless you.

so much love, peace and joy

the abyss

[teruthecreator]

if you're comfortable, could you say what specifically you hated about the finale? i never got into amnesty but i liked balance so i would like to know how disappointed i should be ://

okay i’m gonna explain this in-detail exactly Once bc i’m trying rlly hard to just forget about the whole epilogue and keep it moving like that shit never happened, so for anyone else who is asking me why i don’t like the finale (and im not saying you’re wrong for asking, anon, it just seems that when you vocally do not like a thing there are hundreds of people who come out of the woodworks to ask you why and i think thats kinda Huh, Weird of everyone but like whatever) i’m gonna lay it all out here on the table and you can take this as you will. 

i’m not gonna be getting into fistfights with people abt this so if you disagree please don’t try and banter with me. i am running on

also, CRITICISM OF ART DOES NOT MEAN CRITICISM OF THE ARTIST. I AM NOT CRITICIZING THE MCELROYS AS HUMAN BEINGS, BUT RATHER THEIR ARTISTIC DECISIONS IN TAZ: AMNESTY. MORE PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS A SEPARATION BETWEEN ART AND ARTIST, AND ONCE YOU (AS AN ARTIST) POST A PIECE, IT BECOMES SUBJECT TO CRITICISM. I AM NOT BRINGING GRIFFIN, JUSTIN, TRAVIS, OR CLINT’S CHARACTERS INTO QUESTION; I AM SIMPLY GIVING A CRITICISM ON THE SHOW THEY’VE CREATED AS A WORK OF ART. 

oh, this goes without saying, but i will anyway: SPOILERS FOR AMNESTY (IN GENERAL, BUT ALSO FOR EPISODE 36) 

i’m gonna start off by saying, i don’t think the whole episode was a total disaster. there are two things mainly that have ruined the whole experience for me, but for the most part i thought the like first 2 hours of this episode were a lot of fun! the fight scene was a little bogged down in the rolls imo, but it didn’t deter me too much from the overarching boss battle. the intro was a sick concept, i enjoyed the callback bits spliced in w newly scripted bits from mentioned past encounters, that was all well and good. i loved beacon in the episode, and god do i wish he stayed for the whole thing. 

my problem mainly sits with the epilogue, which is why i think the whole episode turns sour in my mind. because the epilogue is supposed to be what satiates your desire to know more, right? not to reference balance too much (bc these are two completely different stories w different premises, and for people to so readily compare them is kinda wack. that being said, they are two stories made by the same people that use an epilogue to wrap up the loose ends, so im gonna make this one comparison), but the epilogue told us, the listener, all the things we wanted to know about after the day of story of song. we got to know what they did, a little bit of their interpersonal relationships, and we even got a big group scene with the killarey wedding! 

this epilogue, though, feels like it left so much still on the table. one of those things i will swing back to later because it is the largest part of my argument, but after all of this time we still don’t know why everyone at the lodge got exiled! no one talks about it! we don’t know how dani ended up there, or jake, or barclay, or moira, or anyone! they don’t reference the banishments at all, which i think is a huge shortcoming figuring that is the core premise as to why these characters exist in our pc’s world in the first place. 

i also feel like the concept of the worlds being divided for a long time is kind of a dumb way to go about framing what they do After The Fact. like, they could have had those scenes happen without the looming concept of them being divided, especially when their big reunion scene is like 2 minutes long and basically does nothing. what would have been a cooler premise is if billy connected the worlds, and the worlds worked together in rebuilding themselves. we still could’ve had the same bits happen (for the most part), but i just think that whole separation bit kinda alienated the pc’s (especially thacker). 

but everything up to aubrey’s epilogue bit is fine. i have some problems, but it’s fine. where i started to completely abandon the work itself though is duck’s bit, and i’m gonna get into it by saying this: I know Justin Mcelroy is not legally required to make all of his characters gay, but this whole scene was just a big reminder to me that this show is done by 4 straight white men

and yeah, my big problem with this scene is the fact that justin had to make Duck/Minerva a thing. because it adds nothing to the story while also being a very skeevy concept in-general, and it reduces minerva’s character down to the Hero’s Girlfriend trope and it’s so comphet and she doesn’t deserve it. 

my first grievance with this: It adds nothing to the story. 

had justin not even mentioned the relationship part of their interaction before the scene actually took place, this scene would be like every other scene involving duck and minerva prior to this. duck says honey once, and even that could’ve been played off as duck just being affectionate to his friends (which is a thing, i call several of my friends “my love” irl and it isn’t a big deal). minerva doesn’t even use pet names, she calls duck by his full name, which is exactly how she addressed him in every other scene! duck’s speech is a genuine heart-puller, but it was completely soured by the fact that justin had to premise this entire scene by saying duck and minerva are a thing. 

my second grievance: it’s a skeevy-as-all-hell concept. 

this whole premise is nasty seven ways from sunday, and it is my biggest problem with duck’s bit as a whole. for starters, and i think more people need to mention this, minerva meets duck on the night of his 18th birthday. which means duck has literally just stopped being legally considered a minor before minerva appears before him. and honestly, i would still consider duck a minor in this case because he has literally just turned 18!!! his brain has not developed past one of a 17-year-old on the exact date of his birthday, and i argue it will not until he is at least in his twenties. keep in mind, your brain does not stop developing until you are about 25. so while in the legal sense, duck is an adult, in both the mental and emotional sense at that exact moment, duck is still a minor. AND he’s still in high school, as referenced in his response to her call to duty: “i got class tomorrow”. and minerva is old enough to have become the minister of defense for her homeworld, go through an entire war, and have several other chosen ones (including leo tarkesian, who is at least 20 years older than duck) before meeting duck. so that makes her much, much older than duck when she meets him. and i don’t care if they had barely any interaction after that first moment (though they did, as justin legit talks about when he introduces minerva as a concept to the show), that still establishes their initial interaction at a massive age difference. which, regardless of anything, makes their eventual relationship so genuinely messed up. 

sure, you can argue that when you get older age doesn’t make that much of a difference, and i would agree. my mother is 53 and her husband is 63, that’s ten years. but my mother and step mother did not meet at 8 and 18, they met at 50 and 60. the initial interaction makes all the difference between “older people meeting and having a relationship” and “a very messed up situation”. 

also, in this same argument, taking the mentor-student relationship and turning it into a romantic relationship IS SO MESSED UP!!!! GENUINELY AND HONESTLY MESSED UP!!! i feel like i don’t need to explain this because there have been so many examples already as to why this is a relationship you Should Not turn romantic, but i will anyway because it frustrates me so much that justin completely glosses over this!!! the power dynamic of a mentor-student relationship, in whatever way it is portrayed, displays a power balance that is heavily leaning to one side. there is not an equal distribution of power amongst the two because one person is teaching the other. the one person is weak to the others wills and whims because of lack of experience. think of your high school teacher or college professor; if you started a relationship with them, people would raise so many questions because you are not at equals to the teacher/professor. even if they treat you different, and even if they no longer teach you, it all has to do with the initial interaction. and minerva was still duck’s mentor up until either episode 34 or 35, when she handed off the title of Herald of the Astral Mind to duck. that means for nearly all of their interactions, there was a mentor-student dynamic. to have that turn into a romantic relationship is so sketchy and weird and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

my third grievance: it reduces minerva’s character down to a girlfriend trope, and it’s comphet as hell 

my friend tin (@taako–waititi) phrased this so well in the big group chat im in w her, so imma just quote her on this and then go into the comphet stuff: 

“i was dming max about it and they also mentioned, quote, ‘her story was never about romance. it reduced her down to ‘competent woman becomes endgame girlfriend’ trope’ and they are so right it makes me fucking pissed. regardless of any ‘mutual respect’ and ‘emotional intimacy’ kind of thing going on that some people are arguing for, it’s something that didn’t need to happen because minerva’s character becomes that. my thing is mutual respect and emotional intimacy between two people can. exist. without it being. romantic. like. friendship is. also valid. i personally don’t think that mutual respect and emotional intimacy are two buttons that you press to make the machine churn out a romance” 

not only does it reduce minerva’s character to tropes, but it also is extremely comphet for a woman who is so heavily wlw-coded or lesbian-coded and it just angers me. you could argue that she could be bi, but if we look at canon for just its face-value, the only romantic interaction she ever has is with a man, which basically makes her straight. this isn’t like aubrey’s situation, where travis clearly states she is a bi woman who is just in a relationship with another woman in amnesty. griffin doesn’t state anything about minerva’s sexuality and then she’s paired off with a man right at the end. and you could argue that she isn’t wlw or lesbian-coded, but i am not the only one who is wlw and thinks this, so i feel like i have more of a ground to stand on in this opinion. and this just feels so, like, textbook compulsory heteronormativity it made me feel physically sick when i heard this bit in the podcast. 

so that’s my first big issue with the finale, fully explained. my second issue with the epilogue is that ned’s death continues to be disappointing and his character arc is never completed, which just tanks the whole show for me. 

i’ve talked about this several times since ep 28 about how ned’s death was stupid and did nothing for his character arc, but i’m gonna reiterate my main points for the people who find this post without knowing my whole blog:

1. ned’s main interpersonal conflicts are just brought to the surface and never fully delved into before his sudden death. ned doesn’t ever get to explain his history with boyd and why he had to steal shade tree to mama or barclay or really anyone besides vaguely to aubrey. 

2. every character is just immediately expected to feel sad about ned’s death, despite the tension that still remains right up until the very end. aubrey shouldn’t have even known that the shapeshifter framed ned because that’s all explained once she goes to sylvain, but i think travis just assumed she did because he heard the interaction between ned, mama, and barclay. so she should’ve had Way more conflicting feelings about the whole thing, but ned’s death is just angst-bait so that doesn’t happen.

3. ned’s death doesn’t make roll sense because clint rolled a mixed success and mixed successes, by definition, are supposed to be less severe moves than a failed roll (which gives the gm the ability to make a hard move). there isn’t really anything harder to do to a character than kill them, but even if you wanted to argue that if clint failed the roll the hard move would’ve been ned failing and letting dani get shot, it still doesn’t change the fact that clint rolled a mixed success when slamming into the pizza hut sign at full velocity and came out of that alive (severely injured, naturally, but still alive). 

so, yeah, there’s that. and then theres the fact that griffin doesn’t ever give us any other scenes involving ned directly. ned only becomes a reference from 28 on, which is so disappointing given ned’s importance to the other two pcs. and i understand that the mcelroys have a lot of trauma related to death, but griffin shouldn’t have killed ned off then if he did not want to talk about death in graphic detail. we all have trauma. we all want to avoid topics. but to kill ned off and then never talk about his death in great relation to the others is a genuine disservice to ned’s character. 

the day episode 28 aired was the same day i buried my grandmother. i would have loved if death wasn’t brought up, but i don’t control the podcast. the mcelroys do; they had the ability to avoid this topic in a more servicing way to the characters and they didn’t. that isn’t to say they are bad people for not doing it, but it makes the finale even more disappointing because it means we never get the full rounding out of ned’s character arc. he becomes this like brief reference that is, once again, angst-bait or emotional fuel and i feel like he didn’t deserve that. he deserved a genuine reference, a genuine moment. even a dream sequence i would have appreciated!!! 

griffin had sylvain directly point at ned in aubrey’s flashback in ep 35, and then did nothing about what that could have implicated in the finale. it sours the entire episode in a major way and disappointed me immensely. there should have been more done with that topic and there wasn’t and i will never forget how deeply it hurt me and turned me away from canon as a whole. not to be ned kin on main, but ned was the backbone of this show and the exact moment he left was the exact moment the whole thing went downhill. it turned less into a story about growth and adversary and amnesty and more into a waiting game for when this very loose end was going to get wrapped up. 

i wanted to enjoy this episode. i tried so hard, y’all. but just the thought of ned loomed over me the entire time and i was waiting for a more proper completion to his arc, and it never happened. and coupled with that very bad and skeevy duck/minerva bit i was just so frustrated and hurt last night. 

so, yeah, that’s my whole spiel. you are free to disagree with me, but keep that opinion to yourself because i’m not getting into it with anyone. i will just block you; it’s better for us both, anyway. 

[themikewheelers]

So apparently it was confirmed that three new male characters will be cast for season 4. I don't want to judge just yet what they're going to contribute yet, because it's still early, but I'm now nervous lol I really hope they're like Tommy/Carol/Troy types, because holy shit there's already so many main characters. Also, why all male??? Hmmmm..

I don’t know how to say this and I swear I don’t want this to come across rude, but like, there’s literally no reason to complain about a season you haven’t seen yet, and all it does is give yourself a pessimistic attitude that’s just gonna make you and other ppl feel crappy. For starters, I genuinely just don’t know how to explain at this point that new characters are essential to advancing plotlines and in adding new locations, both of which are obviously a big part of s4! there’s literally just no way for them to write s4 without adding new characters. And in the case of these four characters, absolutely nothing has been “confirmed”, it’s 100% rumors that are just repeated by news outlet after news outlet. Maybe they are true, but there’s also a VERY good chance they’re fake just like 80% of news articles claiming to have information about s4 (and just while I’m on the topic I’ve seen that one “leak” EVERYWHERE claiming that s4 is gonna be out October 2020 and I just want to say rn that that is absolute bs so if we could maybe ignore it so ppl don’t get their hopes up and then complain later when it obviously isn’t out by then). But yeah, those 4 characters are complete rumors anyway. But even if they are true I’m sorry but there’s literally nothing wrong with adding them? NONE of them are rumored to be MAIN characters to begin with, or at least, the original source of the rumors didn’t claim they were main characters, idk what every news outlet has said after that when spreading the rumors with no backing. As for 3 of them, from the very very little we “know” about them, they seem p clearly to be high school aged guys who I’m guessing are maybe ppl Jonathan meets at his new school. Maybe antagonists, maybe friends. Maybe they’re upperclassmen bullies to Will. Or maybe they’re in Hawkins and the show is giving Steve some new ppl. But nothing about their descriptions makes them seem important so let’s not overreact to the simple possibility of them existing. It was only the fourth character that seemed like he may be important, but again, that’s bc stories and plotlines cannot advance without new characters being added and that’s smth this fandom just needs to get used to. Ppl having been complaining about this since 2016, and I’m sorry but I’ve been fed up with it since 2016. New characters are important, and I could even somewhat understand the criticism if it was main characters being added, but it’s not and the concept of criticizing a show for adding small roles to advance the plot is just ridiculous.

And about the “all male” thing too, I get what you mean, and trust me I’m also frustrated with how this show has so many more male mains than female, but I do think we gotta acknowledge that first off, its rlly not as bad as ppl make it out to be? 2 adults with a 1:1 ratio. 4 teens with a 2:2 ratio. And then 6 kids with a 4:2 ratio of boys to girls. Out of our mains, there’s rlly only a one character difference between male and female at this point. And it’s def complicated bc to some extent it comes down to who you want to personally interpret as a main character versus just a main cast member, but I think those 12 are rlly our core ppl even if there’s other roles that are technically credited as mains but don’t genuinely have that role (Karen, Billy, etc.). Also I didn’t count Erica in that bc I think it’s debatable whether she’s gonna be a main character going forward and we’ll have to wait to see, but she was absolutely a main character in s3. So yeah. This show absolutely has issues with diversity in so many respects, but in terms of male to female ratios, it’s rlly come so far from where it was in season 1? And while there’s always room for improvement, I do think criticisms at this point that are just “there’s not enough female characters” are kinda shallow and if u wanna talk female representation there’s a lot more meaningful stuff than just comparing numbers out of context. Also like again with this stuff it’s important to note that it is minor characters. If this was main characters I would totally agree with u that without context it seems a little crazy to be adding 4 new men and no women, but these are likely super minor roles and we don’t even know what their purpose is. And as much as ppl wanna deny it, a character’s purpose in the plot is gonna be a big factor in what gender they’re written to be, esp for minor characters.

Idk this got long and rambly and I’m just typing this out in the car sitting in my driveway for like 20 minutes even tho I thought it would take like 2 but dhskmskshsjsbs. I genuinely don’t want this to come across rude and I am just tryna express my opinion but I just don’t have a lot of patience on this topic bc ppl have been using the same complaints since 2016 and the vast majority of which I think are nonsensical. I think there’s absolutely ways that adding too many characters is a problem but I also feel v strongly that this show has done a good job balancing its characters, but more than that I feel much more strongly that adding new characters is an important part of any show and most of all, that judging any decision about s4 before watching it is just harmful to yourself and others. It’s giving yourself a negative attitude that’s gonna affect ur ability to go into the season willing to accept change and have an open mind or enjoy what happens bc ur so prepared and fixated on being critical. And it has the same effect on ppl who may not even agree with you but just from seeing the complaints and judgement from other ppl makes them feel bad about a show they love and affects their ability to enjoy it

[cvenir]

imma try this again bc i said y’know fck it (heh) bc i need to introduce these characters before making proper bios ok here we go

so actually since i did do zella, felix, and gwenna’s bios, i’ll actually just leave them out of the intro bc like.... i have 8 more lmao so like here you can find their bios in the first three circles n also imma link all the pinterests aGAIN bc they probably do more than i can

these are gonna be crude n real cut n dry but let’s face it who has time to read everything abt all 11 ok this is for US

CHRISTOPHER ‘KIT’ MILLER looks an awful lot like DONALD GLOVER. HE is THIRTY-TWO and while they’re MAGNETIC, they have a tendency to get pretty MERCENARY. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to DEGAS PARK by KEVIN ABSTRACT.

ok so kit is my son !! he is kinda a shitty person but it’s a result of his upbringing entirely like he was raised in a household of self-obsession and pre-occupation with the material things. aka he’s like filthy rich bc his parents are well-known in the entertainment business

his father is a rlly big time actor like he is thaT GUY ( my star wars lovin ass likes to pretend he’s billy dee williams bc lando unite but anyway unrelated ) and his mother is a super awesome film director so he grew up with that hanging over his shoulders. his dad was always really hard on him and pushed him to become an actor too but he isn’t abt that life (only to spite his dad lbr)

also his parents were lke actively trying not to have kids so his dad always kinda held that against kit and resented him from day one meanwhile his mother embraced it so :/

his mom is everything he ever dreamed of in a mother, and even tho she was always a bit too busy for him, she never let it affect their relationship and they’re still very close

so yeah kit is that fancy ass man like he bathes in the opulence. he doesn’t do much but gamble and parade his wealth around –– except he has invested in many businesses so like he can be p serious n focused on that sometimes bc like

$$$$

also he loves his ladies. like a lot. pls someone allow him to be the suGAR DADDY WE ALL DESERVE!!! but fr no that’s his biggest downfall like in his song inspo he can get very caught up in his emotions and rlly lose his head bc like he is calm cool and calculating and distant for the most part but once he gets attached it’s like he craves the connection and he can get very lost

anyway also bring me a plot where they may have grown up together and he’s very defensive over them like he doesn’t always get close to people but this person means the world to him and maybe he’s been lowkey in love his whole life but like whatever who talks abt feelings n ruins something so special he could never

yeah so idk what more to say at this point so yeah hmu w questions bc i could probably go off again

ROSALIND LEPAGE looks an awful lot like ADELAIDE KANE. SHE is TWENTY-FOUR and while they’re RESILIENT, they have a tendency to get pretty QUIXOTIC You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to MELTING by KALI UCHIS. 

okay now this is my baby. she is a sweet lil buttercup and only wants the best in life but it never comes to her ugh i’m wounded.

so she was born and raised in kola, v much small-town girl vibes. she absolutely loves it here but since growing up the town was really been stained by disappointment :/ when she was seventeen both of her parents like went missing just like completely disappeared leaving her and her six-year-old sister just completely alone which really fucked up her plans bc she was already accepted to a top-tier music school in new york for college for her passion for violin but she had to turn it down bc her sister was now her responsibility 

so she dropped out of highschool and got her ged and immediately entered the work force, leaving her dreams in the dust. she still plays every now and then, especially whenever there’s an open mic night at the coffee shop where she works like girl plugs in her amp n everything i love her

anyway like she doesn’t resent anyone or blame her sister bc she’s just so compassionate and selfless like she didn’t hesitate to change her life to support her sis but it does still kill her to know that her life just kinda never took off and probs never will. but now she just channels all that sadness into fighting to make sure her sister doesn’t end up stuck like she did

so yeah she’s just a huge sweetheart who loves doing things for others and she’s so so soft like someone hold my lil muffin :/ she can get way too caught up in dreams sometimes but y’know that’s life!!!

DIEGO CABRERA looks an awful lot like XAVIER SERRANO. HE is TWENTY-THREE and while they’re VIVACIOUS, they have a tendency to get pretty ERRATIC. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to DO IT AGAIN by NO ROME.

so one of the messiest children ever, he is here. ngl i got a lot of inspo from adam sackler from girls for my son diego so if u feel me, word. 

basically pls meet the world’s biggest narcissist –– he’s just like appalling sometimes but he really is trying his best. my boi grew up in kola and always planned on moving to LA to pursue his dream of being an actor and wow is he perfect for that bc my guy is the most dramatic and expressive hot mess you’ll ever find

his mind is always moving 100 miles a minute and he just says the craziest things ??? like he doesn’t know where to stop. diego is super passionate abt his own life and what he wants to do and what he believes; he won’t let you forget it either. he’s always here to share a piece of his mind whether you want it for not and he’s not afraid to turn people away bc his opinions are valid !!

like he’s sooo selfish and doesn’t even hide his own agenda, but ngl once you get him attached there’s no going back like he really gives everything his all and will devote anything it takes to procure happiness for those he loves

like he’s rrlly terrible but he truly has a good head on his shoulders and a good heart in his chest n it’ll beat for u rll hard if u earn it (thru his means ofc)

like when i say god complex i mean it

but c’mon pls give me the plot where like this person pined after him for such a fuckin long time and he legit only used them for sex n didn’t even hide it (like fr seconds after rolling over he said ‘so are you gonna leave now ? bye) bUT y’know they’ve been hooking up for so long to where he actually got invested and wanted them to come to his rehearsals and share his passion w them and they just like ..... stopped caring all of a sudden. so now he’s sad boi and mad boi bc after basically begging for him to give a fuck they up and ran when his heart got invOLVED LIKE FUCK ME fr this is the song and i need this connection pLS LOVE ME

anyway he’s a mess but i love him

PIPER KOVALSKY looks an awful lot like EMMY ROSSUM. SHE is TWENTY-SEVEN and while they’re NURTURING, they have a tendency to get pretty CALAMITOUS. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to COFFEE & CIGARETTES by VIC MENSA.

awhh pipes.... my poor bb. she is also quite the mess!! 

but lbr it’s all her fucking fault lmao like her life literally never took off but she has no one to blame but herself. like she just really has a talent for ruining things whenever they get good and she doesn’t even try too my bb just does not think abt ramifications ever

piper was also born and raised in kola but she’s hopped around from area to area bc she can’t keep a lease going to save her life

or a job

she’s a big fan of cigareetes and alcohol and partying but whenever she indullges in anything they kinda have a perfect way of getting her in trouble. like she really wants to stop living like a vagrant but her cyncicsm really gets her down so she barely tries

she has a few siblings that she really wants to protect bc they’re headed down her path as well but she can’t even keep her life straight ugh :/

but ok so she’s truly the biggest softie on the inside like she cares soooo fucking much and she does a terrible job at pretending she doesn’t. but ya girl still tries!

ok so time for me to go off abt a wanted connect!!!! so her song is coffee & cigarettes and it’s a bop find it here pLS and i just really feel in my bones that this should be a connection ok. give me that high school lovers that were never lovers bc all piper could focus on was her own self-destruction n rlly living it up so she just completely shut this person out when it finally became real :/ so yeah it’s a fucking mess and she’s never truly moved on

anyway i should probably move onto the next muse lmao

MALCOLM WEST looks an awful lot like REECE KING. HE is TWENTY-TWO and while they’re JOCULAR, they have a tendency to get pretty CAVALIER. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to EPITAPH by HIPPO CAMPUS. –––––– may or may not be inspired by jake peralta

when i say he’s a goofster i mean he is a goofster and a gaffster ok

my tiny son who just wants to be a big bad detective and fight crime and just crack jokes along the way he is the meme king and he’ll let you know it

he grew up in atlanta where both of his parents were cops so he really just always dreamed of being just like them one day 

until his dad told him he’d never make it. that crushed his spirit entirely and ever since then he really kinda just figured out who his dad was ?? he caught him cheating on his mom and also just being a dirty cop and it just broke his heart bc that was his hero. and y’know malcolm gooddoer and fighter for justice so he went to his mom with this discovery and she just kind of admitted that she knew abt all of it but couldn’t do anything abt it so... he just kinda left and moved to kola to start over

he entered the police academy there as soon as he possibly could (18 i think maybe 19 if i’m dumb ) and just did not stop working his ass off and doing all kinds of paperwork and bust until he finally reached detective just a week ago

don’t get me wrong ya boi hates paperwork but he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do !!

anyway he’s a clown but he loves life and and even tho he’s a child he can take some things seriously

aside from his true feeling heh who ?? i don’t know her n imma just tell a joke or do an impression or smth instead

alsO idk if anyone knows chew the comic series but he dEF IS GONNA HAVE THOSE POWERS FOR THE SUPERHERO/SUPERNATURAL THREAD stay tuned

CAMBRIA SONG looks an awful lot like JENNIE KIM. SHE is TWENTY-ONE and while they’re IDEALISTIC, they have a tendency to get pretty WHIMSICAL. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to MARCELINE by WILLOW.

ok first of all her pinterest is a whole ass aesthetic and u basically see everything she’s abt on there 10/10 would reccommend

now this is a smol bean that is also a bad bitch and we stan !! she’s your astrology loving, extra ass, witty lil witch and she loves adding in her two cents! she’s a sweet lil thing but her bite is bigger than her bark so watch out fr

mostly imma have her in the supernatural verse (witch heh heh), demi-god verse (u kno she’s hecate’s daughter), n maybe the horror verse bc i want my bb to be a medium like lorraine warren that’s my girl!! 

other than that catch her throwing out ur natal chart, charging n cleansing her cyrstals, n offering free tarot readings! really she has her mf shit together n loves helping ppl w spiritual awakenings ok

here is a pic of her two sides conversing ok big meme here

anyway i’m a big fan of her pinterest and i hope that gives everyone a good vibe for her bc tbh i’m tired lol

so imma do my other three muses in another post tomorrow bc !!! ya girl is feeling lazy now lmao sry this took so long geez

[themikewheelers]

I was wondering what new pairings/team-ups do you hope to see in s4

aw man there’s so many honestly?? i’m p open in terms of team-ups like i’m rlly excited to explore any new dynamics between characters. to be bluntly honest, i don’t want dustin & steve teamed up for another season (let them interact all they want, but please, it’s been two seasons since we’ve seen dustin teamed up with his friends, let him be with the party again i’m begging). plus i just want steve to branch out more and have new dynamics with other characters. same with robin. the two of them absolutely can stay teamed up, but i don’t want it to be Just them, i want to see them interact with more characters and form new dynamics so they’re more directly involved with everything on the show. i’d LOVE if we got to see them with nancy and jonathan, but at the same time i can completely accept it if the duffers just don’t want to do that or don’t think there’s rlly a natural way to do it. but rlly just pair them with anyone new bc i wanna see them having more relationships within the main characters. same with nancy and jonathan honestly, like i’m completely fine if they’re teamed up all season, but again i don’t want it to be Just them. let them team up with other characters too !! i know we kinda got the whole griswold family thing in s3 but even then it still felt v divided between them and the kids imo and it’s not like we rlly saw them interacting much with the kids during that, so i’d love to see the two of them team up with other characters for s4. both of them have had other relationships developed in the show, but we’ve never actually seen them teamed up for the plot with anyone else. (can s4 maybe be the season where we FINALLY get some quality wheeler sibling bonding?). and with jonathan and the whole byers family, i wanna see more of them. even if they aren’t teamed up in the plot i want more development for their dynamics. i wanna see how the move has changed the family dynamic, how things are different between the three of them now that el’s there, and i wanna see all of their relarionships with el. with el i’m p flexible what i want them to do with her bc honestly i think there’s a lot they could do with any character paired with her. pairing her with any of the byers would be awesome. having her team up with mike would be great. going deeper with her relationship with max. or my absolute dream team since s1, exploring her relationships with dustin and lucas. honestly they can’t rlly go wrong with who they put el with for s4. for joyce, obv she needs a new partner now that hop’s not around, so if they had her and el partner up to find him that would be an amazing arc, but if she’s not with el i would love to see her with jonathan, or maybe even murray if they’re planning to keep him v involved.

for the most part i want the party together for s4. i mean if el and will aren’t around that’s one thing obv. but for the most part i guess i don’t rlly want to see the party super divided all season. i ABSOLUTELY want dustin to be with them this season (there are very very very few things that i can say i would be mad about for s4 instead of just being like “oh i don’t love the idea but i’m gonna keep an open mind till i see it” but dustin not being with the kids for another season is one of them. like i can say right off the bat regardless how awesome his arc could be with another character, if he’s not paired with at least one of the party members in season 4 i’m going to be super disappointed). but other that than i’m not super uptight about where all the other kids end up. i would like mike with the party but as i said before i would be thrilled if he got to have an arc with nancy. with max and lucas, i guess i’m not rlly sure where else they could be? idk if they’re planning to keep erica on as a main for s4, but if they do, i desperately want her to interact with lucas this season bc there was such a sad lack of that in s3. they don’t necessarily have to be teamed up, but at least give em a few moments to bond. obviously this wouldn’t serve for where max is for the plot, but for her individual arc, i rlly want them to explore her family life and how much it’s changed now that billy’s gone, so i wanna see those dynamics. outside of the other kids idrk how max and lucas could end up teamed up with other characters, unless it’s out of necessity like dustin was with steve in s2, but honestly i think they’re interesting enough characters that i could see them having cool dynamics with anyone rlly.

[themikewheelers]

Go wild tori please tell us your thoughts on the wheelers we wanna hear what you have to say

Anyways I wasn’t exaggerating when I said there’s so much I could say about the Wheeler family, below the cut is a 2.5k word/4 page essay about them and there’s STILL so much more I could say lmaoooo. If you’d rather read on google docs I’m putting a link here 

Karen Wheeler only got married out of obligation. That may have never been explicitly stated in canon, but I know it’s true. She got married when she was very young. In the original script for the show it described her as being in her early 30s, which means she would have gotten married and had Nancy VERY shortly after graduating high school. I truly believe that Karen never really wanted to marry Ted, but she was young and fresh out of high school. She’s living in a conservative town from a traditional family, and she never feels like there’s much of a choice for her. She wants stability, she wants a good reputation, she wants to do what’s expected of her. So she’s young, she probably didn’t even go to college (why would she? She was expected to grow up to be a wife and mother, not to have a career) and she meets Ted. He’s older, but he’s from a good family, he’s a formal athletic star of Hawkins, he’s got a stable income, and he’s everything she’s ever been told she should want. She doesn’t love him, but she’s living in a society and family that expects her to settle down and become a mother, and at that point in her life, she doesn’t let herself dream of anything more. She just wants to settle down with that stable life that’s expected of her.

She had Nancy very quickly after getting married. Right from the start, Karen realized how absent Ted was. He was never really a loving, attentive husband. He didn’t love her either, and he married her out of obligation too. He came from a traditional family that was encouraging him to finally settle down and start a family, that’s what was expected. Karen was pretty and popular and they didn’t have much of a romance, but they both viewed marriage as what they were expected to do. Ted’s glory days were in high school, and he doesn’t have many ambitions left. So even after they’re married, they don’t care much for each other, but they paint the picture of this happy newlywed couple. Karen is lonely, but she doesn’t let herself feel any regret over marrying him yet. Instead she starts trying for a baby, because being a mother will give her life some more meaning (and a part of her hopes Ted will become more involved once he’s a father).

Ted wanted a son. He was disappointed when he found out their first baby was going to be a girl, but hey, she was only their first, they could have another kid. So Nancy was born, and he wasn’t a great father, but to some extent he was there. Karen did most of the work but he helped out some and took care of Nancy, but he quick to push Karen into having another kid. Then comes along Mike, and at first Ted is thrilled. Finally he has a son, who Ted can push all his expectations onto. He’ll be a star football player, he’ll bring glory to the Wheeler name, he’ll have this adventurous wonderful life Ted can live vicariously through. Because there was a point in Ted’s life when he was this star of Hawkins and he was living in his glory days, but now he’s in a boring marriage working a boring salesman job, and he wants a son he can project onto.

Only that isn’t Mike. At all. Mike is a good kid, of course, most parents would be thrilled to have a son as sweet and smart and gentle as him, but he’s not what Ted wanted his son to be. He’s only a little kid, but it’s already clear he’s not into sports or most other typically masculine things, he’s much gentler than other kids his age, and he’s nothing like this clear view of macho masculinity Ted envisioned for his son. But Ted keeps pushing him, forcing him to join Little League and similar stuff, but over time begins to give up. His son isn’t who he wanted him to be. He’s racing to see Star Wars in theaters, he’s building a volcano in their kitchen for his school science fair, he’s playing Dungeons and Dragons in their basement instead of taking Ted up on his offer to toss a ball around outside. Mike is a good kid, but he wasn’t what Ted wanted, and Ted never let him forget it. He becomes more and more distant from his family. He’s unhappy with his life and his family. He never really loved his wife, he has a daughter he’s never had much interest in, and a son he views as a disappointment. He turns into the Ted Wheeler we know, absent and uncaring and uninvolved, only ever interacting with his family to give judgement and criticism. Karen becomes more and more unsatisfied with him herself, and the fact that Nancy and Mike are growing up and she’s not spending so much time taking care of them anymore contributes. She’s growing more resentful towards Ted, and the fact that her kids don’t need her as much and she’s not as active as a mother is only making that worse. Then comes the 3rd Wheeler child, Holly Wheeler, a true save-the-marriage baby born into a family with an already crumbling dynamic.

As I mentioned before, Karen never loved Ted. She married him out of societal (and likely family) expectations as a way to gain some sense of stability in her life. She was never really satisfied with Ted, but for a long time she was able to ignore it, because she was a full-time mother and she had her kids to take care of and beyond her general frustration with Ted’s lack of parenting, she was content just being a mom. But then Nancy and Mike are growing up, and they don’t need her as much anymore, and we see her start to crack because of it. It starts in season 1, and she’s just getting so frustrated and upset because she can tell her kids don’t need her as much anymore, her role as a mother isn’t as big anymore and she’s starting to feel useless. She signed herself up for this life that was expected of women in this time period where she’s just meant to be a mother and a wife and nothing else. She’s married to Ted, but her relationship with him as never rlly been great, so she doesn’t feel like much of a wife, and with her kids growing up she starts to feel like less of a mother as well. She’s growing less content with her life and with the decisions she’s made leading her up to this point. 

And then Nancy and Mike shutting her out only get worse after the events of season 1, and obviously Karen can’t understand why, and that alongside her deepening frustration with Ted is what leads to her spiral we start to see in season 2. Karen’s starting to give up. For the longest time she was the only tape and glue holding the family together, and as she gives up, the family crumbles even more. She stops trying to get her children to open up to her, she’s come to terms with the fact that they never will, and after 16+ years of marriage, she’s starting to realize Ted is never going to come around either. Their save-the-marriage baby is now 4 years old, and she hasn’t saved the marriage at all. Karen Wheeler is just so deeply unsatisfied with her life. She’s unsatisfied with the choices she’s made leading up to this point. This life as the suburban stay-at-home mom and housewife is what she was told she would be her whole life, and it was a decision she settled into when she was barely out of high school, and now as an adult she has so many regrets. She loves her family, but she’s unhappy with her life, and wishes she could have something more. And we see her spiral in s2 because of it. She’s checked out and given up on trying to fix her family, she’s throwing herself headfirst into romance novels and wishing she could have lived a romance like that herself at some point, she’s constantly gossipping with the other suburban moms around town to get drama, she’s flirting with Billy, and she’s got a serious but subtle drinking problem that Cara Buono hinted is going to be touched upon more in future seasons. I really do think Karen Wheeler is one of the most interesting characters on this show. Her story is all about these societal expectations for women to be mothers and wives, and in her case, you can see how unsatisfied with that being all she is, especially when she’s got an absent husband and her children closing her off.

Then, onto Mike and Nancy. I think they were close when they were little. In fact, I think Nancy was Mike’s only real friend for the first few years of his life. We know Will was the first friend he ever met, he didn’t know anybody at school going in, and that’s when he was 5 years old. I think Karen kept him very socially isolated when he was young, he didn’t even know Lucas who lived next door. But him and Nancy were very close. When he was a baby, Nancy would play with him like a doll. He spent his toddler years playing with Nancy and her friends when they came over. Even when Mike got a little bit older and met the boys, Nancy would dress up for his campaigns for them. The two of them were very close when they were young, but then they started growing up and growing apart. By s1, Nancy was in high school and talking to boys and going to parties while her nerdy baby brother was in their basement playing a fantasy game with his equally nerdy friends. Mike and Nancy really do love each other and they’re so protective of each other in the show, but as they grew up they started having less in common and stopped being as close as they once were.

And then the events of s1 happened, and I really do think during the whole “No more secrets” scene they meant it and really did want to become closer again, but it was everything that happened after that brought them down. Nancy found out Barb was dead, and Eleven went missing. In some respects, it seems like that should have brought them together bc they were both dealing with a similar grief, but they both dealt with their grief in such different ways, plus the scenarios were just different enough to pull them apart. I’m sure Mike was jealous because Nancy knew Barb was dead and she could at least get some closure, whereas he was stuck with no clue if El was alive or not and it was eating him alive. But from Nancy’s perspective, she was jealous because she was sure Barb was gone, but Mike at least had a chance of Eleven coming back. 

And then they just dealt with it in such different ways. One of the biggest contributors to why Mike was such a wreck in season 2 isn’t solely because of what happened, but because he had no way to process it and deal with it. He couldn’t talk about it at all, and that’s what he needed personally to cope. For legal reasons he couldn’t tell anybody obviously (not that he even had any people he could tell) but even with his friends he had trouble talking. Dustin and Lucas were both coping by trying to pretend everything was normal so hopefully it would feel that way again, plus they didn’t want to risk upsetting Mike and Will more by bringing things up. But then to Mike, he thought the two of them were just moving on fine and it wasn’t hurting them the same way it was hurting him, and their whole way of coping by pretending things were normal was the opposite of what Mike needed because he wanted to talk about it all. And he could talk to Will, and we saw he did a bit, but I think even with Will he held himself back a bit because he didn’t want to upset Will more by talking about it too much, or potentially make him feel bad (bc Eleven did “die” trying to save him, and I’m sure Will harbored some guilt for it upon seeing how much his friends missed her). So then Mike had all this going on himself, but then he couldn’t even go to Nancy either, because she was doing the same as Dustin and Lucas. She was trying to pretend everything was normal as her way to cope, and we saw how by the time it was a year later in s2 that really ate away at her and she felt so guilty for trying to cope that way, but that’s what she did. So even though Mike and Nancy went through these similar traumas, it ultimately only pushed them apart more as opposed to having them deal with it together. They still love each other and are still so protective of each other, but they’ve just had so much trouble getting close and opening up to one another.

And just in general, Mike and Nancy are VERY similar people, personality-wise. They’re emotionally driven. They’re both super smart, but the epitome of following your heart over your head. They wear their hearts of their sleeves and the people they love are always the motivations for their actions. Every single one of their actions on the show has all been motivated by someone they care about. They both have these intense and passionate personalities and it’s something I didn’t notice for a long time, but when you start to analyze both their characters separately, you can start seeing all these similarities pop up that’s always been so interesting to me.

In general, the Wheeler family dynamic is this struggling sense of stability and normalcy. Ted and Karen are people who care a lot about reputations, so they’ve built up this image of the happy Wheeler family for the people of Hawkins. They’re a perfect little nuclear family at the end of the Maple Street cul-de-sac. But beyond this reputation there’s so many problems and none of them are truly happy or satisfied. Ted and Karen’s marriage is on the rocks, both Mike and Nancy are canonically never home anymore, and all the members of the family have really drifted and become more uninterested in each other. Ted had an idealized of the family he wanted, and this was never it, and as a result he’s given up on them. Karen settled for a life she was pressured into by society’s expectations, and over time her dissatisfaction has grown worse. Mike and Nancy are growing up in the aftermath, and have both displayed their frustrations with it. Nancy especially, we’ve seen how she’s really rejected this image of the perfect suburban girl, she hates this fake normalcy and stability her family is built off of. The whole family has such a complicated and messy dynamic, all the characters have different layers going on to them, and I’ve always found the family so interesting