#you know what the duffers are doing LMAO

[emblazons]

One of the things that always makes me squint when processing people and their byler doubt is how they’ll say things like “how you felt after the van scene / confession is how you’re gonna feel at the end” (disappointed, upset, angry)…but the Duffers themselves said the end of S4 was the low spot before the resolution (because it was the 2/3 point between that and the end) and was supposed to make you feel like you lost?

Like. If The Duffers are literally telling me (i need to find the interview, but once I do it will go here) that this point in the story was meant to leave me dejected and worried for the next phase…shouldn’t feeling like “all is lost” at this point with Byler (rather than saying “oh Mike confessed, he did the thing, now the romance is resolved” as some other people do) be a good thing?

All I'm saying is this: Will and Mike's relationship feels fractured in every romantic sense (though they do seem to have repaired the platonic side of it to much affect, if the last several scenes are anything to go on), which (dare I say it) remains as upsetting narrative point for Will as Vecna being back, and on-par emotionally to El losing Max...and that's a good thing. It means that the high point of the issue has yet to come, and there is still more to the story to be addressed...unlike Mike "finally saying I love you" other plot points that perhaps seem like more "positive" resolutions, where the only place they can go is down.

Thinking Will will never have his happy ending, Mike is suddenly at his full resolution because he confessed, & El is just "set" now that she got an "I love you" two-thirds of the way through the end of the narrative (not to mention Max, Lucas, and Jonathan/Nancy/Steve etc) makes no sense—and it’s really only the E-M-W triangle people are doing this with, because no one is saying “oh, Jonathan and Nancy smiled at each other and stood by each other end of S4, so the Steve thing will never come up again.

Basically: the idea that its a bad thing you felt bad for Will / felt upset about Byler at the end of S4 is actually a misunderstanding of the purpose of the story they told...if you're listening to what The Duffers said about what they were trying to accomplish with this little section their show. They want you to worry, feel bad and empathize with the characters--and freak out a little, because their lives (and happiness) truly are in danger.

I'd be more concerned if the couple / person / moment I was betting on was meant to be a full resolution (or painted in a positive light) in the part of the volume where the creators told me they were "going low," if I'm honest...especially with how much we know about them being rebellious/writing for themselves, making clear points about their feelings on racism, homophobia + bullying, and their love of subverting expectations. But...idk. Maybe thats just me lmao

[butterflysonnets]

absolutely insane that mike literally p a n i c k e d when will was like "well what about us?" because will wasn't even really making things gay he was honest to god just inquiring about the state of their estranged friendship and wondering why mike didn't make time to talk to him when they're supposed to be best friends but MIKE was the one having an aneurysm like "🏳️‍🌈⁉️ W H AT!!"

“WE'RE FRIENDS” “i know mike” “WE'RE!!! F R I E N D S!!” “right so why don't you call me — ” “I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND” “… that in no way answers my question"

[maddy-ferguson]

controversial opinion but i dont think the duffers set up byler well, lets be real most of the fandom outside of our echo chamber doesn't think byler is going to become canon. and like idk but i agree that they should have at least broken up mlvn and resolved the monologue issue (preferably not include it even) if they were going for the byler route. same for will's importance or even mike's importance for the plot. removing them from the show's main narrative doesn't make a good case for their importance in the story in the penultimate, esp when they received minimum screentime in this season. it's not the audience's fault to think mlvn is endgame or will or mike are unimportant when the way they've been handled were lackluster and when cali plot.... Was Like That. plus they gave it all to el's character lol. ofc ppl gonna think she's the protagonist when she was the one who opened the gate and created vecna and when mike spends the entire season talking about her. redpill but it's not making much sense here when the narrative is criticized in the byler fandom, acting like the writers did a perfect job in terms of setup is just being wilfully blind atp.

i think people not expecting it is the point though. like yeah it's obvious because when they did the same thing on a smaller scale with nancy's love triangle at the end of season 1 (her spending most of the season with jonathan them bonding and her and steve fighting but then still being together in the epilogue) most people could see that jonathan and nancy were gonna be together and not one person was called delusional for thinking that. but i really think the juxtaposition is the point, it's a queer couple so even with a similar storyline people don't expect it because of heteronormativity etc which is kind of depressing but it's also what's gonna make it happening even better...#imho

for the monologue, obviously i don't ENJOY IT but i don't hate it because i think it's interesting for el? whether you think she believed him or not, whether or not you think she was gonna break up with him at sbp, i think having him tell her he loves her makes it so no one can be like "but if mike had said he loved her everything would've been fine!" i like them going all the way in that sense. i think it's good for us as an audience to have that, this way there's no what ifs. it makes it apparent that their relationship couldn't be fixed by mike saying i love you and also that their fight in lenora wasn't only about mike and about their relationship, like mike never thought she was a monster that was all el, and him telling her that she's not a monster won't fix that internal struggle for her. and it also won't help her grow beyond the monster/superhero dichotomy.

i don't like will and mike being away from the supernatural plot either but yk i do think it's because they're important for the resolution of that storyline and that that's also supposed to come as a surprise. for mike well i don't actually know that he is, but i certainly know will is and i think they did set that up pretty well. he's not in episode 7 but they reveal that the upside down is frozen on the day he disappeared, he's in hawkins for five minutes but the season ends with him talking about his connection to vecna and everyone and their mother is reminded of the fact that will is a vital part of the supernatural plot. people don't necessarily think he's gonna be the key to resolving the upside down and vecna thing for good (no matter what that looks like, i'm expecting it to be both el and will because it kind of is the el show + we'll fix it together + lucas and erica (siblings) being the mvps of the basketball game and the dnd game that has a lot of foreshadowing in episode 1 etc) because el's the one who's always done it pretty much by herself...but it's also never worked. not for long anyway. i would say that like byler (but not as shocking because it's not someone assumed to be straight turning out to be gay) it's supposed to make people go oh why have i never thought of that of course will would be an integral part of the ud resolution this makes so much sense!!! when it happens. and characters also always expect el to be the one to fix it just like they don't expect byler to happen. meta.

and again i don't LOVE mike and will's thing being the conversational roadtrip only in season 4, but i get why they did it like i see the vision. i see where you're coming from and i agree that most people not seeing byler coming isn't necessarily their fault (even though i said it's similar to nancy's s1 triangle and everyone expected it then. nancy never gave steve an i love you i've loved you forever i'll love you forever speech, major difference), i really think it's NOT supposed to be that obvious. even though it is kind of. i get wishing they had broken up mlvn in volume 2 and i certainly would've liked not having to see bylers be called delusional 24/7 but i think mlvn breaking up would've made byler endgame wayy too obvious and if they wanted it to be obvious to the girls that get it only i think they've accomplished that. same with will and the supernatural plot. and everyone is free to not like it still, i just don't think that means the set up isn't good.

very last paragraph. i don't think everything they've ever written is perfect. i don't even think every decision that's been made by the st team regarding WILL's queerness is perfect like (this is another conversation) having noah deny the gay allegations on will's behalf a month before having him say oh yeah he is gay it's obvious is crazy to me it's no surprise that people feel like it's an afterthought and like byler is never gonna happen. even though i obviously disagree with them. fin.

[bugsbenefit]

scary that there's still Will bowlcut haters around. like... that's his core character design, it looks nice too. sorry to all the different hairstyle enjoyers out there but Will without a bowlcut simply wouldn't be Will to me. that's the side effect of them doubling down on that one single hairstyle for 8 years. they can style it different or make it messier sure, but he needs Some version of a bowlcut otherwise who is that

[rigginsstreet]

does stranger things ever play rap or hip hop? i cant imagine them ever using like a run dmc song lmfao but like... they should have back when i was still interested anything going into season 5 is irrelevant

[marypsue]

not to be a horrible shipper all over your plotfic but what would the ships look like in your ageswap au?

The sample I posted does rather invite the question!

I should put out there, as a general rule, I'm not all that interested in Mike/Will and I don't have plans to write it anywhere. I don't really vibe with it, generally, and I believe I've mentioned previously (but maybe only in tags) that I really hate the way the Duffers conceived of and have been handling the possibility that Will might be gay. And many of the ways parts of the fandom have acted in response. I get that it's important to some people, and I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but I've seen so much bad behaviour from the showrunners all the way down that it's pretty firmly put me off.

With that said, though. This fic was undertaken before I'd had much exposure to the fandom, and also, the roleswap plays...well, a role. I'm a sucker for a good triad relationship, especially the Monster Hunting Trio, and in this version of things, that's Mike and El and Will. So this is probably the only time you're ever going to see me writing reciprocated romantic feelings between Mike and Will. It's just that El is also there. And the entire context of their previous relationships with each other has changed. It feels different. I don't know. I'm operating on vibes, here.

Also because of the roleswap, this is one of those rare places where I'm not mashing Steve and Nancy and Jonathan's faces all together. Nancy and Jonathan are the Hopper and Joyce of this fic, and Steve is the Karen Wheeler. He'll be fine in his loveless marriage while the other two are off having fantastic post-saving-the-world sex. Maybe he'll have an ill-advised affair in the future. Who can say.

(Also Nancy and Barb had a brief on-again-off-again fling post-Nancy's-divorce, which has been over for some time as of the action taking place. Long enough for Barb to find a more stable relationship with the other local lesbian...)

I'm pretty sure that's it, as far as romance goes. Apart from the teen squad, it's pretty secondary to the plot in season 1, and I'm sticking with that. (Also, I need lots of time and space to fully mine the hilarity of Steve being Mike's literal actual father.)

[queerxqueen]

Congratulations on the book! It must be so exciting to officially be a part of the Stranger Things universe.

I look forward to eventually seeing how Dustin's season 5 arc fits into a story that takes place between seasons 3 and 4. Clearly you can't tell us anything, but what is it like being under an NDA? Are you threatened with being locked in the Duffers basement?

thank you so much! gosh, it's definitely surreal to be involved in anything even canon-adjacent. especially as someone involved in fandom who knows how much it means to people, it was weirdly powerful knowing that all of these hijinks and shenanigans i wrote would be technically canon. (there's a certain gag with eddie that i'm like... i genuinely can't believe they're letting me make this canon, lmao)

so, nda things... i'm not under threat of being locked in the duffers' basement (that i know of, though i'd accept an invitation, if they'd have me over!) of course, i can't share any real spoilers or any of the materials they shared with me. it's pretty straightforward in that i can't talk about things that aren't public knowledge.

but it's mostly been weird navigating it because of my fandom involvement. for example, yall know i love to analyze things.... so getting to see some scripts but not being able to analyze them to bits and pieces for tumblr? getting tiny tidbits of s5 knowledge that i can't explicitly use to inform my posts on here? even just small assumptions i could glean based on things they approved or didn't approve could sometimes seem like juicy gossip that i had no one to scream about with. so that was absolutely brutal to me personally. but i was motivated to keep the secrets for the sake of getting to do the coolest job ever, so it's more than worth it!

[pinkerthings]

the importance of mike and will simply getting each other, cont. (pt 3):

i covered the significance of Mileven not understanding each other here, and the first part of byler getting each other here. time to finish what we started ! Continuing on with--

season 2:

Crazy together, because byler isn’t byler without it:

This scene is important. It’s a direct parallel of a couple Mileven scenes, like the grocery store scene of Mike trying to tell El he loves her & the season one scene of Mike talking to El about the snow ball.

There is no confusion in this entire scene. Will tells Mike what he’s been experiencing, Mike understands, and tells him if one of them goes crazy, they’ll both go crazy. They are in it together. Literally crazy together. I don’t know what else anyone could want from this scene. It’s the epitome of Mike and Will understanding each other.

In episode 3 during Will’s “episode” seeing the Mind Flayer again, lo and behold, who is the one to find him in the field?

Of course you’re the one to find him Michael ! You’re always the one to find him !

Later on in episode 5 Will is in his bedroom explaining the shadow monster visions and feelings to Mike, and he just gets it, even if he doesn’t get it.

Finishing Will’s sentences, not asking a lot of questions, understanding what he’s trying to say, etc. Mike is just getting what he’s saying.

He’s also trying to be positive and uplifting, reassuring Will that everything will be fine.

And then we get the byler handhold:

bad pic but we all know what it looks like so idc !

Moving on, one of my favorite parts about season 2 is just how much Mike and Will content we get. They are literally glued to each other's hips for nine episodes. The rest of the party us off doing whatever it is they were doing and Mike has literally not left Will's side once.

The hospital scene where Will (being partially possessed by the Mind Flayer) doesn't remember Hopper nor Bob, and barely remembers Joyce, but recognizes Mike almost instantly ? Just how much space does Mike take up in Will's brain? Get a grip Byers!

season 3:

Season 3 is interesting because this is where things start getting ...... weird between them. Starting in episode 1, the first scene they have together is the movie theatre scene, where Will senses something is wrong and Mike immediately notices. I mean, literally right away.

(peep the blush on both their cheeks when they first sit down lmao.)

Will senses something and has this far away look on his face, to which Mike interrupts his thoughts with, "Hey, you okay?" Will nods and says yes. Mike presses again, "You're sure?" And Will says, "Of course." Mike then nods and leans back in his seat.

The first minutes of season three, we are met with a protective Mike, similar to season two. The Duffers are still showing the audience, "Hey! These two are best friends! Mike watches over Will and Will watches over Mike, and they are very protective of each other."

For the first few episodes of season 3, they seem to be in this awkward rut, but still somehow are almost always at each other's sides ? (interesting considering there's always one person who disrupts their compatibility)

Their next interaction includes Will thinking Mike and Eleven's little "curfew at 4" stunt is "gross," right before feeling the shadow monster and touching his neck (but that’s a theory for another day).

Episode 2: Mike lying to Eleven about his Nana because he doesn’t want to hang out with her (per Hopper’s wrath) and the boys shopping at the mall. (Just another example of Mileven not understanding each other. Their relationship is almost always centered around lies !)

Next is infamous “I dump your ass scene,” yet another example of Mileven misunderstanding each other that I should have included in post one.

Episode 3: The byler fight !

Begins with Will waking up Lucas and Mike with medieval music and his speech about d&d, which I find….interesting.

“I have seen into the future, and I see that today is a new day. A day…free of girls.”

Now, this is Will Byers we’re talking about, he’s not the biggest fan of girls. But that line is interesting. We know the Duffer’s love putting little hints and clues in earlier episodes to allude to future things. (Or maybe I’m just delusional)

Lucas isn’t that opposed to the d&d game with Will, but Mike is a little weary because it’s so early in the morning But he eventually gives in and plays the game.

Mike and Lucas are clearly uninterested in the game, unlike Will, who is clearly invested and trying to have fun.

Mike answers a phone call in the middle of the game thinking it could be El, and ends the game with an easy way out. Will gets upset and tears is costume off, shutting off the music and heading outside.

Mike’s ENTIRE demeanor changes in an instant. It goes from annoyed and bored to apologetic and empathetic in a literal second.

“Will, I was just messing around.”

Michael, you certainly weren’t, but just realized that your attitude actually hurt your best friend and you feel bad about it.

“Will, let’s finish for real. How much longer is the campaign?”

Will says, “Just forget it, Mike.”

And Mike says, “No, you want to keep playing, right? We’ll just call the girls after.”

It doesn't matter what Mike wants, because Will wants to keep playing, Mike is willing to push his immature attitude aside and play the game for his best friend.

“I said, forget it, Mike!” Will yells.

Mike has a hurt look on his face, sort of similar to the s2 e2 look on Will’s face when Mike is slightly annoyed at him for letting Max trick-or-treat with them. It’s the look of, “Oh no, I made my best friend mad and I didn’t mean to. How could I do such a thing?!”

Will says he’s going home and pushes past Lucas and Mike, and only one of them follows.

You guessed it !

“Will come on, you can’t leave, it’s raining.”

This scene makes me giggle because since when has RAIN stopped anyone in this show from accomplishing anything? Will has literally been through hell and back and Mike is worried because he doesn’t want him biking home in the rain?

Anyways byler rain fight:

Mike literally says it himself:

El’s not stupid.

(crazy + stupid = love)

Mike literally says himself he and El aren’t compatible.

(screw tumblr for only allowing 30 images per post)

next part coming i promise !!!!

[bylrlve]

Warning! Potential spoilers for Stranger Things Season Five!

Compiling some new Alex DMs. The first one is just amusing - Uuh huh, I’m real convinced that you’ve gotten no byler tea - and the other two are very funny.

‘Steve driving with Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin’ - a cop-out but also confirmed, except for the Steve-as-driver bit. The rest is plausible enough - Mike being afraid Will won’t need him would be a glorious call-back to s4 mileven, except better bc of the van speech, and bc unlike mileven, byler have a dynamic where Will is receptive to Mike’s caretaking, and where Will’s decision-making is ultimately respected by Mike. The ultimate example is Mike realising that Will intended to sacrifice himself when he told them all to CLOSE GATE, but ultimately choosing to go along with it, trusting his judgement. It’s also very clear from his smug smile after “that was you guys who saved me, that was you guys” that he genuinely feels proud of protecting Will, and enjoys being his knight in rusty armour.

The byler bit in the second also seems to be building on ‘I know what he thinks, and how he thinks.” Probably fake, but good guesswork.

I do want to emphasise, here, that swiftlynatalia is getting NOTHING mileven, except that one instantly-debunkable one about Hopper still being pissed at Mike for hanging around her so much. It’s interesting - if nothing else, it shows the fandom is over it lmao.

Lastly^.

Speaking of leaks, remember this one?

heavenlymiwi on twitter found that there’s a Philkas scene where Philip - the Will parallel - kisses Lukas - the Mike parallel - while he’s unconscious in a hospital bed. We’re all aware of the Eyewitness parallels, and this is another interesting one.

https://x.com/willsxbylers/status/1758228641819808162?s=20 - other eyewitness parallels.

Finally, just to mention them here - Will Byers, Mike Wheeler, Robin Buckley, and Karen Wheeler (confirmed as bi in the play The First Shadow) may all be in scenes together at this farm location. Not confirmed, as Cara is close with the Duffers and may just have flown out to celebrate their big day, but it’s fun to speculate.

This person on twitter observed that the person on the bike might be Will -

https://x.com/motherts1307/status/1758453575401734647?s=2

This injured person is also wearing those shoes, but given how popular this style seems to be - there’s a pic of someone else wearing them in Ross’s Jan 9th post - it’s still a mystery.

Ross’s Jan 9th post

My Masterpost

To clarify, I’m archiving all of this because I think that, for better or for worse, it’ll all be interesting to look back on in a few years.

[gay-episode]

I fully believe that I watched stranger things the way the duffers intended when it comes to byler.

Here were my thoughts (as I remember them) back when I watched Stranger Things for the very first time.

Also I'm gonna refer to Mike and El as milkven because apparently if you say the actual ship name it gets into milkven shippers algorithms or something

In season one- I felt absolutely nothing towards Mike and El, I literally groaned when they had their first kiss because of the generic "main guy gets together with main girl" trope, and I also found it really icky that El JUST compared her and Mike's relationship to a sibling kind of dynamic.

In season 2- okay I won't lie I shipped milkven in season 2, I thought they were really cute in their reunion scene (and admittedly that scene is still absolutely adorable), if the show ended with season 2 and I shipped milkven I would be a very happy camper. BUT obviously season 2 is notoriously THE byler season. I remember in the first scene with Mike and Will, when they're alone outside of the arcade, I remember my first time watching that and saying outloud "ha they have more chemistry than El and Mike do" I said it as a joke at first but as the season went on that feeling that they were good for each other only progressed. (This still blows my mind how I picked up on that without even knowing they actually liked each other lmao)

In season 3- my first time watching season 3 was eeehhh not very good for byler, you definitely have to know and analyze the characters to understand literally anything Mike does (at least I did lol) but I definitely knew that Will really liked Mike, I could tell immediately in the scene where Mike and El are walking away while the others are trying to contact Suzie, I remember seeing the way Will looked at them and thinking "oh wow Will totally likes Mike, that's cute" Also I really really hated milkven in season 3, my favorite scenes were El being independent and getting away from him

Season 4- DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED! Season 4 is what pulled me straight into the byler fandom. I cannot tell you how happy I got when Mike and Will had their kinda heart to heart early in the season, I don't know how to describe it but you know what I mean, it's this one ↯

Every single time they were on screen I could tell it was romantic, even in their fight scene. (I'm not even gonna start with the van scene otherwise we'd be here all day) Milkven on he other hand just made me mad, I cannot even begin to tell you how badly I cringed during Mike's ily monologue.

Keep in mind that these were are my thoughts from the very first time I watched these episodes and I KNOW it was intended to be that way. Obviously after learning more about the characters (mainly Mike) I have a LOT more to say about them, but the fact I picked up on this much from just my first viewing is honestly really telling.

[a-strangers-thoughtss]

I know everyone shits on the season 3 and 4 kids (including me, lovingly) but the duffers got the age down like to a tee

Like I’m sorry, but when I was 12-14 I was BAD.

My issues also had a lot to do with suffering from depression, anxiety, and past trauma.

But I mean… the kids in the show are also struggling with that.

Every one of them can kind of represent a way that someone copes with all of that too.

Dustin: ahh my friends are fighting.? Go to Steve for advice and then actually just avoid them bc sometimes it feels like they don’t want me around.

Well that didn’t work out very well. I just need to get to the root of the problem and fix it so no one else has to continue to suffer.

Lucas:. My friends are the most important thing to me and I’m gonna do whatever I can to help. How can I fix this for you? What can I do for you? Haha, wdym “how am I doing” this is about you.

Will: My childhood has been completely ripped away from me. I want it back pls. I’m kinda getting annoyed now bc no one wants to be younger again with me. Oh, yeah. I guess im gay too. I should go die in a hole.

Self sabotaging is by far the best way to go lmao. I’ll never be happy so let’s make other people happy instead.

Mike: I feel a lot but I don’t know how to express my feelings like Will can so I just bottle them up until I have a loud outburst and fight with someone and everyone gets hurt. I’m gonna push shit down like a MAN. I can play the role of Els boyfriend, I can be a good straight. I am not gay.

Oh shit, yep definetly gay, but I’m not about to fully address that. Let’s try to make El happy by being a great bf instead.

Max: Why choose to communicate feelings when you can just bottle them up. Pffft, what is accepting that I need help. That’s never gonna happen. We’re just gonna avoid the problem of feeling things.

El: I have no idea how to actually do this social thing. Hello horrible person that bullies me 👋. Why am I angry all the time? Dw Mike everything’s fine. I’m just extremely frustrated and have no way to express that. I’m just going to try to be as normal as possible so that people don’t hate me. I also didn’t know I could have a personality of my own 🤨

So basically they’re all very repressed and confused. They all suck at communicating and they’re all self sacrificing idiots.

It manifests outwardly differently than it does internally aswell. Overcompensating is a huge thing that all people in this age range struggle with.

My conclusion is that they all need exceeding amounts of therapy.

[emblazons]

Me the second someone tries to explain that something in the stranger things canon is the way it is because 1) someone in marketing “wouldn’t do xyz” unless it implied something (accurate) about the story or 2) it would be easier to explain to “the casual audience:”

[findafight]

Jonathan’s line about Steve in vol 2 was so…. I don’t know. I mean yeah it straight up confirms that Nancy and Jonathan make fun of Steve behind his back, and like I get that I have never been in Nancy’s situation so obviously it seems more mortifying to me, but I would have felt so guilty in her place. I can’t imagine not shutting Jonathan up if he started shit talking about Steve. Like Steve would have been straight up unmentionable if I was Nancy. Idk.

I get that Duffers don’t treat their characters emotional lives seriously, but like. That’s why Robin being kind to Nancy in s5 despite Nancy’s uh.. well frankly appalling attitude towards Robin, makes zero sense to me. I really wanted Nancy to struggle being in Steve’s group. Not in the “she deserves it bhahaha” way, but like… Steve dumped his friends for her (which was good for him), and her expecting to get the same treatment and meeting Robin instead? Who actively dislikes her and for a good reason? Who is smart and cool and kind? That’s way more interesting than people kissing Nancy’s ass the whole season, while she is actively putting Max’s life in danger. Like, yeah in high school she is the chief editor of the newspaper, and at home she is the eldest sister, and with Jon she makes fun of Steve, and now none of these people are here, but Steve is here and so is his bestie. And Steve is as kind as always, but Robin dislikes her, and it is not just prejudice

Nancy Wheeler you wild girl! She has no guilt lmao She's like yeah steve was dumb and annoying and didn't enable my investigation, and jon goes yep, what an idiot. All while Steve is just like. bumpin around making friends with little nerds haha. Minding his own business blaming himself for the end of their relationship. You're right, it's kinda bonkers because even if we take the stance that Nancy didn't cheat (which I believe she did) like. she still had him as her second choice and as soon as he pushed back a bit and didn't give her the kind of support she wasn't telling him she needed (until talking about exposing the lab in the library where anyone could hear) she jumped ship and ran to Jonathan. Why would she want to talk about Steve? Why wouldn't she want to try to forget he ever existed as anything other than Mike's friend Dustin's older friend? Is that not weird for her?

(i think you might mean s4? but i can work with s5 too haha) It's so much more compelling to me to have Nancy and Robin at odds with each other because Robin is like a little guard chihuahua holding a grudge for Steve. She holds grudges so well let her do it more!! like jesus give him someone in his corner! And also for herself! She got so nervous and tried to explain and defend herself, and Nancy only really started to listen once they got into the hospital. Nancy has a not great plan that puts one of the kids in danger, one of the kids Steve is close to. (Max wrote him a letter!!) I think Robin would really see Steve's people as her people, even if she wasn't personally close to them she'd still feel comfortable around the younger teens because Steve is? Let robin be critical of this plan. Let her call it out or something. Give Nancy someone to push against, it's no fun if there's no resistance! I want Nancy to be the one wanting friendship with Robin, and Robin not being receptive to it. Nancy not having a relationship handed to her would be refreshing and I want to see how she'd try to win Robin's friendship.

Let Robin not want to work with Nancy because she's heard the rumours about how her and Steve ended, even though he only mentioned that he wasn't a good boyfriend ans wasn't what she needed so it didn't work out. Robin saw that one week Steve and Nancy had a fight, and a day later she was ditching with Jonathan? yeah something is fishy there to even the most socially oblivious person. Let Robin know Steve well enough that she knew he at least thought he was telling the truth but that there must have been more. Let Robin decide she was going to do the most cliche best friend thing and not be very nice to the ex that broke her bestie's heart.

ooooh anon what you're saying is so interesting because, yeah. Steve dumped Tommy and Carol for Nancy, and that was good for him, and then Nancy got with Jonathan who doesn't really have any friends in Hawkins. So she's always been her boyfriend's main person of similar age they're close to. But now Steve's got Robin. Who is funny and kind and weird and loyal and smart and sarcastic. Who is obsessed with Steve and who Steve is also obsessed with. And that, from a s5 stancy pov, is so interesting because now Nancy is now competing (in her mind) for her boyfriend/potential bf's attention with his best friend. Like Jonathan was focused on his family, obviously (and this caused strain for them too) but it's not the same socially as a best friend taking priority. Steve would still hold those relationships, because they're good for him and good for the others, and there's zero reason for him to abandon them this time.

I think Nancy would hate it. Like Steve would obviously give her tonnes of attention, but with him having actual close friendships not just with Robin but Dustin and Max (at least) too, she'd still feel like she was bartering for time with him. That is suuuuch a fun potential dynamic between nancy and steve and also nancy and steve's friends.

[wheelerpilled]

I was talking to some people who are DEFINITELY general audience....I forgot some of the GA doesn't even know rinkomania happened on Wills birthday? And if they do know that then some BELIEVE the Duffers just made a genuine mistake? (Its 100% NOT a mistake btw!!!!!)

Then I remembered that it's actually not even a huge detail in the show and thats part of what I love about ST

there are SO many details and hints that have been layed out, but it's usually something the general audience doesn't seem to catch, it's a show that knows it's fans are so dedicated into leaving no stone unturned that they leave things like this for us to find, stuff you don't notice just by watching it casually, like yes- it's still a very enjoyable show that way and you can be a fan and not in the fanbase who obsessed over it and scans every scene...but it's just nice how they keep us guessing and leave so many theories available, it's unpredictable, it's great, it's fun, and I love that they leave so many ambiguous loose ends for us to think of stuff for the next season!!!

I love stranger things because it's the only show that's got me fully invested in finding these details and trying to piece together my own theories, it's got me willing to sit down and think/analyse, even if it seems silly and insignificant, the only other form of media that I've been this in deep with is the saw franchise...which is why I'm going to be so sad when the show ends because there is going to be no more of that, this show has consumed so many of my thoughts for YEARS and I'm just going to be devastated when theres nothing left to try guess anymore, no more details to look at, nithing. I love seeing everyone's observations from the show because so many are well-thought out and awesome!!! I'm just going to miss the fanbase SO much because it will eventually die off and I love it here so much

Does anyone know any other Fandoms that are kinda similar to the ST fandom, one of which also has alot of details to analyse and theorize about, because when ST ends I need something to obsess over, but I don't know WHAT!! I know there probs will be ST spinoffs of some sort in the future but I love the cast so much and I'm just so attached to the series and the fandom 😭😭

LMAO that's all

[stevesbipanic]

Billy wasn't FROM small town Indiana though. He was from California, where they have open minds. Dacre said Billy WASN'T racist, despite what the Duffers wanted, and Dacre is the one who pushed to have a blatant slur removed from the script because he refused to say the word the writers wanted used.

LMAO Cute how you think you know anything about me, and how you think you can goad me into revealing who I am.

You're going to have to work a lot harder than that to get under my skin. I'm right and I know I'm right. Go keep sucking that cultist Jason Carver's dick or whatever.

I'm sorry in what world do you think I like Jason Carver either??????? Man was also a piece of shit, not as bad as billy but was def a dickhead. Also cute how you think you're big and brave hiding behind an anon sweetheart, noone scared of you and you're little billy dicksucker opinions.

Billy was racist and wanted Lucas dead. He threw a CHILD against a wall and said "You're dead Sinclair" luckily Steve was there to take the beating from Billy but if billy had been able to follow through with the same beating on Lucas, Lucas would've died.

I've got plenty and plenty of followers and people that like my work and I don't need to hide behind a mask to talk about my opinions so run along and block me and stop wasting everyone's time with your whining just admit you'd say a racist slur if someone you thought was hot said it. You're not hot shit stop acting like it hun 😘.

[will80sbyers]

Rewatching terminator randomly and I'm looking out for stranger things related stuff lol

Sarah Connor worked in a diner at the beginning she wasn't in the military so if she would be in st that could make sense too, or maybe just be someone that knows everything about the UD before things start and she's not completely clueless like Sarah was

Nancy has a parallel with Kyle when they both cut the rifles to use short guns on their enemies

Kyle also talks about the terminator to Sarah exactly like Will talks about Vecna to Mike (interesting that they end up being a couple)

The iconic shot of the terminator arriving at the beginning also reminds me of Vecna when he goes down from the vines, I'll see if I find the pics later

At one point Terminator is hurt and repairs itself so I think it's possible there are going to be scenes of Vecna healing himself probably through the vines of the upside down, Terminator also sort of lost an eye lmao very Vecna of it

In the movie they constantly put lyrics of music in the background that corresponds to what's happening in the scene like we have seen the Duffers do often in stranger things even if people think it's not true

At one point Sarah and Kyle have a scene where she's bandaging his wounds and then she falls asleep and wakes up with him caressing her and now I can't stop thinking what if it happens with Mike and Will 🫶 actually even the whole love confession scene is very interesting parallel wise although I don't think Will is going to die like Kyle, but basically he was in love with her since before he even met her so a long time and he's also making her feel special when she thinks she's just a normal random person... Also I'm not sure about if it will be but if time travel is involved it could be cool if Will rewrote the timeline to save Mike and then after that they had the love confession + first kiss etc

Kyle says they use dogs to spot terminators.... All the dogs always bark in stranger things when Vecna is near

Terminator uses the voice of her mom to trick Sarah into telling him where she is, what if Vecna does the same next season

I theorized that the light in the upside down could work as a wormhole for time travel possibly and in terminator they say that you see white light while going back in time

At the end of the movie the only thing that remains of the terminator is its hand, I can see this happening to Vecna tbh

They say "there's a storm coming" and the movie ends with her in her car, they took that from here too probably