the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.
sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.
you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.
it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.
but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.
they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.
they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.
barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.
and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.
but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.
they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!
this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.
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Fun fact: In the original pitch for Stranger Things, El had a little brother.
After being rejected by almost 20 studios for the Montauk pilot, the Duffers were finally green-lit by Netflix. It was at this time that they began casting and then writing the first season officially, which included reworking a lot of that first episode.
This led to the removal of the brother reference, and with it, removing any sort of arc El could have had about her apparent brother.
But the thing about this moment, is that it might not have been scrapped entirely...
Going into the final season, no one can explain why or how El recognized Will back in 1x02. And while there are plenty of things on the show that are left unexplained, with a small portion likely left that way with the intention to uncover it later, what sets this moment apart from the rest is that there are very few possibilities here.
Because for starters, the story presents El's ability to see people in the void in s1 as requiring either a picture of that person for reference, or having met that person before.
But when El see's this picture of Will, she's never met him before. Or maybe she has, but we wouldn't know because they never showed us. They could have just not done this scene at all, given that it's clearly a copy/paste/edit of something scrapped from the pitch. Or they could have even still included it, but explained it.
One explanation could be that the lab had shown El a picture of Will before, similar to what they did with the Russian agent they wanted to spy on. But then that begs to question, why would the lab show El a picture of Will? Why would they want to see what he was doing? That alone is incriminating in and of itself, implying that Will is more connected to the lab than we realize.
The only other, and frankly most likely explanation, would be that El stumbled across Will at some point on her journey between escaping the lab and Will going missing. This is actually something that happens in The Other Side comic, which explores all the things Will may have experienced during his time in the Upside Down.
Though it’s worth noting the comics aren’t technically canon, and I highly doubt they would outright spoil everything in relation to Will’s time there, years before it was intended to be revealed. But still, let's humor this for a moment given that I do think Will's time in the UD is going to be very relevant in s5, which means it's highly likely they will finally address how exactly El saw him.
Basically, in the comic, Will see’s El walking through the woods, almost apparition like, glowing as she passes by, while also sporting the Benny’s burgers shirt. This means they would have crossed passed within a short span of time, between when El escaped Benny’s when the agents arrived, but before she was found by the boys.
Though it’s worth noting that we’re seeing this all from Will’s perspective. This means from the UD, Will was capable of seeing El on the other side, despite them being on different sides. And not only that, but she also looks back at him.
What confuses me about this, is that it doesn’t make sense for El to be in the woods, only to randomly decide to pop in to the void for a moment. She was trying to escape the lab and everything that came with it. I doubt she had any desire to lurk back there for some reason, not until someone encouraged her to. Not to mention, it would make no sense for her to go there and see Will if she wasn't even looking for him in the first place. And so this would mean Will and El could see each other, with Will being in the UD, and El being on the other side.
While it does seem pretty far off, given that you would think Will and El wouldn't be able to see each other from different sides, it is true in the story that El not only recognizes Will, but knows that he is in danger. She mentions that he is hiding specifically.
Which means she has likely seen him within the last 24 hours regardless.
This, in combination with Will being able to respond to El in the void at the end of the season in Castle Byers, when no one else outside of Terry and flayed-Billy have been able to, seems to imply that there is indeed something special about Will that makes him capable of communicating with El from the UD. Not only that, but El also seems to have an ability to be in this constant knowing state of how Will is doing, without even checking again to confirm. She's just certain of it. And she seems terrified about it.
Going forward, El never uses a picture of Will to find him. She never did. And more often than not, they don’t show us what she see’s either, not until the very end. And that’s the moment they reveal that he was able to communicate with her.
Again, there was really no reason to have El recognize Will. If anything it complicates things. But the fact that they chose to introduce this concept, with a scene from the original pitch that was related to El’s younger brother, with her pointing at his name cryptically, startling Benny, only to revamp it and have El not say anything at all while pointing at the picture of Will, startling Mike… It just really makes you stop and think.
Which brings me to the other aspect of this that might have people doubting, which is that El’s brother was originally younger than her.
We know Will is not younger than El, so how could this apply to him?
Well, it might be helpful to consider that in the original script, El was actually 10 years old, while the boys were always 12. Meaning that for some reason, they decided to age her up to the age of the boys, aka the same age as Will…
Ever since @erikiara80 shared this brother discovery with me, I have been sort of reeling. It then led to other little discoveries of changes they made between Montauk and Stranger Things.
It’s important to understand that the Montauk bible and the original script precedes what we ended up with in the final product, with it finally changing and evolving months, maybe even a year since that original vision. Even casting occurred before writing started for the first season. We know this because casting announcements were made in June and August of 2015, with writing not starting until August going into early 2016, simultaneously while they were filming.
And believe it or not, what I've discovered is that a lot of the changes they made between their original plans and what we see in the final product, have to do with not only Willel, but also Byler.
If you've read the original script for Montauk, you'll know that Mike's crush on Jennifer Hayes was focused on right from the jump, along with the birthmark on his face being focused on, which was the main cause of the bullying he experienced.
This has actually been talked about recently, and some of the claims people make do fit with what I am genuinely starting to consider here, which is that the initial plan for what makes Mike an outcast shifted.
I think when they completed casting, and started actually deep diving into what they wanted this world to look like, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint, they were presented with some pretty interesting discoveries, arguably already hiding in their initial plans without realizing it.
And this is where it sort of becomes a 'chicken or the egg' situation. Because which one came first? Byler or Willel?
I can't say for certain, because obviously this is all just speculation. But in the case that Willel came first, I think Byler would come very naturally after that.
The Duffers themselves are twins. Then they hire Noah, who is a twin. Then they're thinking and planning for El's past and how her family all fits into this, and they're thinking... wait a damn minute... We could totally Star Wars this bitch!
And then when they think it couldn't get any better, they uncover another layer that they hadn't planned or really considered in their initial plans.
While Will was always going to have sexual identity issues according to the Montauk bible, meaning that the writing process for him likely involved sitting down imagining scenarios that encapsulated this arc for Will from the beginning, they were simultaneously now finding very interesting aspects of Mike's character that made it hard not to at least consider the possiblity that Mike is not exactly straight.
Just think about it. The Byers and Wheelers are basically polar opposites on the spectrum of what a family looks like. While Will's discovery and acceptance of his queerness is interesting to explore because he comes from a low-income, single-mom household, all while having been bullied for years based on his perceived queerness, he also has a mother and brother constantly reinforcing that they will accept him no matter what. They've been sort of hitting us over the head with it for years, and so it wouldn't be very satisfying for his entire arc to merely lead up to something we've known all along. It's pretty much a given at this point.
On the other side of the spectrum, Mike comes from a more upper-middle class family at the end of a cul-de-sac, more aligned with what a nuclear family looks like. Mike's family is also presented as being more conservative, and while Karen does give that very queer-coded speech to Mike in s1 (I'm convinced they only wrote this after deciding to explore queer-coding more heavily with Mike), it also comes with comments from Ted and even still Karen that hint that they are probably not as open-minded and accepting as Will's family is to him. Which means Mike's arc would be a lot more about acceptance around him from his loved ones who we have been led to believe might not be as accepting of his queerness in contrast to Will.
And so as they're putting this story together, and they're being presented with something very interesting. Two similar experiences that play out in different ways because of the characters circumstances.
Will goes missing, and his twin sister with a buzzcut pops up and has the ability to help them find Will.
This leads to several moments where El is being compared to as not only a boy, but Will as well.
Now suddenly, their initial plans to have Mike's arc be about having a girl be interested in him and to hopefully have his first kiss and feel like less of a loser, starts to look a lot like what the experience a queer kid in his position might encounter growing up in the environment that he did.
And if you don't want to take my word for it, just hear the Duffer's themselves hinting at what they initially planned for Mike and the fact that it changed.
The changes don't stop there.
Believe it or not, 'It was a seven', did not exist in the initial pitch. When the boys went outside bickering over Nancy, they leave right after that.
Another thing that changed from the first script, was Scott Clarke's introduction:
And so you might be thinking, who cares? What does that have to do with anything?
Well, it's interesting because the line we end up with on the show is arguably one of the most on the nose Twelvegate proofs to date. Mind you, this is from the first episode:
Why chuck the original version, which was arguably more interesting and fascinating in terms of it hinting at the mysteriousness surrounding this story, only to replace it with him listing off tips about their upcoming test?
Well, I think it's the irony of it all. Here Mr. Clarke is practically telling us where to look to figure stuff out for ourselves what is going on, with all the kids filing out and ignoring him...
I relate to Scott a litttle too much in this shot here, any time I try to drop Willel evidence.
And the changes go on, as they obviously would.
Things like Terry Ives not even being El's mom, but actually a man who more so aligns with the characterization of Murray.
And one very interesting one I almost overlooked was in Hopper's introduction, where instead of a kids drawing done by who we assume to be Sarah, we actually see a picture on the wall of him and his wife and daughter... Interesting that they decided to switch it something that is a lot less definitive in presenting what Hopper's past looked like...
If you've made it this far, congratulations.
If you still think I'm out of my mind, just remember that El was going to have a brother in the original script, but they scrapped the scene and gave a near identical one to introduce her connection to Will instead 😘
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DP x DC 50's High School AU... Or is it?
Just imagine if you will, a very aesthetic 1950's high school setting. The Waynes live in the idyllic little town of Amity Park, going to Casper High, and living their lives.
Dick is the oldest son, off to college but still stopping by to visit, all letterman jacket and smiles. Jason, the bad boy greaser is trying to finish up his senior year of high school, a little late, but spending time in Juvie put his life on hold. He's trying his best, spending time working on his motorcycle and hanging with his study buddy, Jazz Fenton. Tim enjoying high school life with his family, studying hard and enjoying photography club. Gee, Tim's life sure is perfect
or is it?
Tim can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. Sometimes, he remembers something else. He has memories of his life here, and they must be real, his family is here, Jason, Bruce, Alfred, and even Dick when he's back from the Teen Titans college. Wait... Dick wasn't in college, was he? Wasn't he a cop in Blood Haven? Was he the local cop? That's right, Dick is the local cop, all sunshine and feeding his eternal sweet tooth with donuts. How could he forget that? He loved his family! Sure, there had been some rough spots, like when Jason died went to juvie, but they were together now, a real family.
But sometimes Tim has dreams, of another time, of another place. But they can't be true, can they? YES! No, That made no sense. Thinking about it made his head hurt.
Then there was the matter of the boy in his class, Danny Fenton. He kept catching him staring. Danny would just look at him funny. Sometimes he would say weird things. Tim would write him off as just an oddball, but sometimes what he said reminded him of his dreams.
Tim wasn't sure what it was, but something was up. He was going to find out what it was, and maybe, just maybe, Danny Fenton was the first step to solving this mystery
or
Tim wished for a more idyllic life and to get along with his brothers while on a mission in Amity Park. One reality warping genie ghost later and now they're stuck in something like a 1950's sitcom with altered memories.
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I still don't understand the obsession with Seiya. Let's just think about this situation from Usagi's perspective. Your fiance has gone to another country for school while you remain in your own country where you're just trying to get through school while something inside is telling you something is very wrong with your fiance because he's not calling. However, as if this isn't bad enough, some popular guy starts stalking you and insisting on being in a relationship with you although you already mentioned more than once you have a boyfriend, you have tried to let them off gently, but they can't seem to take the hint. To add more salt to the wound, your friends are encouraging this behavior and gaslighting you into playing along just so they can get with the guy themselves, which leads to you being humiliated and bullied. All the while, you still worry about your fiance and having the other guy continually insult him and trying convince you that he doesn't even love you anymore.
Because you know emotional abuse and gaslighting are just signs of love, right?
I have always looked at the situation from her POV ever since I watch Stars back in 2017. Especially the first episode after Mamo left and S.A.D and their two back up singers I mean the other two Starlights come to their school.
All Usagi wanted to do was try to get trough the school year without Mamo being there and be unbothered.
That's it.
Because the looks she gave them through that whole episode..
"I don't want to fuck with you. Leave me the fuck alone."
Which was so fucking relatable!!!
She showed zero interest in the fact S.A.D was an idol and The Starlight’s while the other girls was gushing over them.
All she wanted to do was make it through the rest of the school year without Mamo in peace damn it!
She told Luna when she ask if it was a club she was want to join like the girls are and this was her answer.
If the school said they was doing a student exchange program with high school students in America aka Boston Mass where Harvard is at, Usagi would be the first to put her name on the list and get the fuck out of there to see her man. English be damned. ( Which how the other four and Luna treat her I don't blame her. ) ( She looks like an Alien in the last pic but the 90's anime have the best animation... )
When S.A.D and the Starlights come to school, so was so unfazed with the fact they were Jpop Stars/Idols while all the other girls around the school was fangirling since they were apart of the fanclub. Also while Mina was start scheming, Mako was fangirling, Ami was secretly fangirling and Rei went from her damn school to their school just to see them after school.
Just think about the fact that she technically met them first before the four groupies I mean her friends met them.
But the way they acted toward Usagi because it because she could careless about them and the other two..
Doesn't make any sense.
And I get it.
It was nothing wrong with them fangirling over JPop Stars/Idols/ Boy Brands.
I am a 90's baby who was kid during TRL days on MTV and it was Backstreet Boys Vs.Nsync Vs. 98 Degrees. ( This was before social media was a thing)
My classmates had pics of B2K, Pretty Ricky, and other black bands on the wall and fight over who was their fave.
Hell Might as well include Boys to Men, All for One, New Edition.
Hell my sister was a HUGE fan of New Kids on the Block when she a teenager. Which now a few years ago, she got into KPop and is a huge fan of Shinee and other Kpop groups like NCT 127 ( and the off shoot groups with it's fifty elven members lol) , EXO, Stray Kids and others. Hell it got me into listening girl groups like Mamamoo, Red Velvet, Girls' Generation, CLC, Black Pink, After School and others
So I understand that and the fact they are 16 year old's girls because I was their age once.
Hell Naoko in the manga got them fangirling over them as well but it's a balance which the 90's anime didn't give them. They kept pushing S.A.D on her for their own personal grain and not thinking about Usagi doesn't want NOTHING to do with them.
Because this shit in that Softball episode and the Episode where S,A.D is at her house alone..
She gives two fucks that S.A.D is an Idol. All she wants is to see her damn boyfriend.
And she keep telling S.A.D over and over again." Hey I have a boyfriend." Hey I really don't vibe with you. Leave me alone." Hey We are not dating. I got someone I'm waiting on to come back." and S.A. D keep thinking " Oh She's just playing hard to get. She really digs me. Let me keep throwing my weight I mean Swag around her. "
Which ends up to their own heartbreak on the damn roof when it supposed to been about her and not about them.
Cause that moment was about her. I’m really tried of seeing so many scenes in the 90’s anime that her feelings get sideline for someone else. I’m tired of the part of fandom saying it’s about both of them.
She is on the damn ground in the gotdamn rain venting about missing her (dead) boyfriend cause she doesn’t have a clue why he’s not replying in which she told NOONE the whole damn season that she haven’t and you have the nerve to be like “ Am I not Good Enough”
You would done so much better if you would have hug her or just told her “ Come on lets get you out of this rain.”
Since they keep putting themselves in a situation that they know jackshit about and thinking Mamo didn't give a damn about her which is father from the damn truth.
" Oh He's making her sad..He doesn't love her.." DON'T TOUCH SHIT THAT DON'T BELONG TO YOU!
The more insult to injury after the rooftop scence her "best friend" have the nerve to say this.
Child If your ass was paying attention the whole season instead of hightailing your ass from your school to the girls school just to see the damn Starlights you would have fucking knew all the damn time she told space alien dive ass that she had a damn boyfriend. She may have told yall that she haven't heard from him since he left but since yall been shitty ass friends for almost 200 episodes...
Especially one arc in particular which you sit up here , joked about her being dumped and precede to give her the most shitty ass advice you can give someone. " Oh You got to trust him" even tho he really give her ZERO reasons to trust him since he was hot and cold towards her. Which the rest of yall was like " Oh he had his reasons" which he did but yall didn't fucking rally behind her which yall most def didn't rally behind her dealing with Seiya and could told them to back off.
No yall asses was too busy using her proximity to Space Alien Diva ass and their two back up singers for yall own personal grain.
Be damned about a friend yall claim yall love and want to protect feelings.
HER FEELINGS NEVER FUCKING MATTERED TO NO ONE BUT FUCKING MAMORU!
But hey
People always going to use the break up arc against him when the one time he wasn't thinking rationally at all because all he wanted to do was protect her ( which he honestly though not from the dreams he was having but from himself because he still through he couldn't have no one close to him. Since he didn't have a set of friends and support system like Usagi did) which he didn't think it through and how it would affect her and himself greatly.
He was a freaking 17 years old boy having a dream about marrying the girl he is in love with ,having her die on which supposed to be the happiest day of their lives and having a booming voice to telling him " Oh you need to stay away from Usagi" which in his mind translates to him thinking that he is bad news/curse to her since she already died one lifetime because of their love.
Which he would rather just put the burden of staying away from her and dealing with it on his own instead of just telling her. Which for a 17 year old boy what the fuck do you expect? He have not matured yet which the most rational thing to do was to tell her. ( But hell some adults still don't tell shit.) Rei had dreams in S about the whole world including the girls getting destroyed and haven't told a soul until Pluto told her to tell them. No one got on her withholding important information about the world to her team.
But oh no
That's not forgivable but "Am I not good enough" is
When a person who made Usagi finally breaking down about missing Mamo and feeling like she can't do all this shit she is dealing with by herself into being " Hey what about me?"
I mean what about you?
Half of the season you got on her damn nerves thinking she was playing hard to get when she was constantly telling you she had a boyfriend and wasn't interested.
The rest of the season yall become friends but you thought you can " Treat her better than he can."
Then being upset that you found your princess and she's not interested in you so transfer your feelings to a person who most def not interested in you and your ass got hurt because you wouldn't simply listen to her and leave her the fuck alone.
Unrequited love is a bitch but come the fuck on.
Then it trips me out when people translates that scene to "Oh Am I not doing a good enough job to distract you from your sadness.” instead of S.A.D trying to “replace” Mamo is still making the scene about them.
Because S.A.D is still not understanding the fact that when she saw that rose, everything she held on inside the whole season come out and it was not only just about Mamo.
She have a group of friends and still feels utterly alone to the point that she didn’t even tell them she heard nothing from Mamo.
She has a guardian cat that she don’t even tell her what’s going on because she is so judgmental and still act like Usagi can’t do the work.
She misses not only Mamo that she doesn’t know what’s going on with him not retuning her calls or her letters but missing Chibiusa.
She have to deal with Outers and the Starlights bullshit and how the Outers don’t want to hang with S.A.D or be allies with the Starlights. While the Starlights don’t want S.A.D to do the same thing.
She constantly dealing with the inners shit and how they acted like groupies while using her to try to get close to S.A.D the until they found out S.A.D and Starlights identities. Which the inners are completely useless in fights she is having now.
She had to deal with S.A.D shit and not understanding that she have a boyfriend and just ask her to do things before just thinking she will automatedly do it with them.
To top that all off she got to deal with Galaxia and her people stealing people Star Seed.
All the while not having the one person that have been by her side since she become Sailor Moon. Mamoru.
No 16 year old girl should have to deal with that much shit.
And it all come ahead with her seeing that rose and think maybe just maybe he come back to her finally. That she’s not alone.
The saddness she feels runs deep and just because you think you finally decided to stop “ shoot your shot” and be supported of her you think it’s going to “Proof” magically disappear. Because you make her smile or laugh for a few minutes.
Naw dear It doesn’t work that way. No way in hell does it way that way because it’s more than her missing her boyfriend.
Usagi was depressed this season and you can’t tell me otherwise. So no amount of S.A.D trying to make her “ happy” would actually make her “ happy” if she’s not mentally.
But we should feel bad for S.A.D because they love her oh so much by pushing boundaries and throwing emotional baggage that weight a fucking ton on a girl who have to deal with her OWN emotional baggage!!
"Poor S.A.D! They just love Usagi so much. Bad Usagi for not bring their feelings into consideration while you are breaking down about being alone and missing your boyfriend.”
Poor S.A.D my ass
Sorrows, Sorrows Prayers Seyia
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