whynotimtired - Tumblr blog

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someone made a byler edit to good luck, babe by chappell roan so i’m bringing it from tiktok because everybody and their mother has to watch it.

lives were fucking changed oh my god

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“i love you on your bad days” you don’t. you don’t though

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Mike in his room, Mike at the school, Mike with the bullies, Mike with Dustin, Mike with the party, Mike in the field with El. Mike, Mike, Mike. Mike main character doubters will look very foolish after Stranger Things 5.

And everybody knows about the secret first two days of Byler filming that we will not get any pics from until after the season is out.

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There's something in Finn wolfhard being a breakout star in s1 and humongous names like Steven Spielberg saying that the kids changed the limitations of child acting bc they're so good. And then suddenly Finn wolfhard after S4 being known generally as the worst one, as the guy who can't act, just "not as good" as everyone else. Because of the monologue. The monologue the writers praised and hyped up as his best work, as something they didn't know if he could do bc he hadn't ever done it before, generally something they were really proud of.

So, if his supposed "best work" is something that people come away from feeling like it's his worst? That means there's a disconnect in the way the writers are looking at the scene vs the way the general audience sees it, which is funny bc if we look at that scene at face value, he's confessing his love. So if theres something deeper about the scene that changes the meaning, that changes that scene from bad acting to great acting, from a love confession to...

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MIKE WHEELER + A MEDITATION ON BOUNDARIES

"Back when I thought I was straight I would go on dates with boys. The boys would usually want to kiss me. I disliked kissing, but I thought that their preferences deserved to count as much as mine, and I reasoned that they probably liked kissing more than I disliked kissing. So kissing was a morally good thing to do. I also reasoned that if I told them I disliked the kissing then they’d feel guilty and enjoy it less. So I did not tell them.  I am certain I was making some kind of critical error but it has taken me a long time to figure out what it might be." (x)

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"did mike see it? then it doesn't count"

will tells mike about the seven. the demogorgon gets him

will tells mike about vecna/henry/one being alive. the ominous end of season sequence on the hill begins

i know mike hates not knowing things but STOP TELLING HIM THINGS

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el has known that mike is the source from the beginning and she still chooses to protect him at every turn. haters can try to make their friendship unimportant but they will never succeed

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S2 shed scene -- Will/Vecna POV -- part 1 of 2.

[I bit off more than I could chew with this piece, so I had to split it up to get something done in time for @bylerween2023. Maybe if we're lucky I'll have part 2 done in time for bylerween2024. :p]

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Mike got upset at Hopper in s2 bc Hopper was keeping El hidden... when she could've been helping Will and preventing Will's situation from getting so bad

Obviously there are other reasons too, he was mourning and missed her, it was a shock to see her, etc. I'm just saying I think this is the bigger reason.

This also ties into Mike viewing El as a superhero and how this puts their relationship in a weird space. If someone is a superhero, you're not missing them as a person, you're missing them for their powers and what they can do for you.

Obviously we saw that Mike was missing El in 2x01 and 2x02. But at the end of 2x02, we saw Mike having a new concern about what was going on with Will and that he was seeing something from the UD. Mike is confronted with the reality that he doesn't know much about the UD and doesn't know how to help. He doesn't know if this is real or just visions. He doesn't understand (although he does his best to help), the others wouldn't understand, but Eleven would. She would know, she'd be able to help, she'd know how to stop this.

Because, after all, Mike has said it before: she's a weapon. He viewed her as a way to get Will back before (partly, not claiming this was his only motivation in his relationship with El) and now in s2, Mike is missing her for what she could have done here: helped Will.

Mike does what he can to put positive spins on the situation and he provides that emotional support, which probably helped more than he knew.

But that didn't exactly stop the bad things from happening. Mike still doesn't know how to fix things. He does everything he can, he comes up with the idea to spy back and to put Will to sleep, but it's still a very upsetting day or two.

When El returns, he greets her happily but as soon as he hears that she's been out there, listening to his calls, his face drops. He wanted to know she was out there. And then very quickly his anger moves to Hopper. El didn't know that Will was in trouble. She stayed away bc Hopper told her to, but she didn't know what was going on. Hopper knew. Hopper knew that El was probably one of the only people who might know enough to help, so he gets mad about Hopper hiding her, when she could've been there, she could've stepped in as soon as Will saw the Mind Flayer the first time.

Moving onto the fight scene:

Mike and Hopper both look and gesture towards this wall a lot, and I get that it's probably the direction of where El is in the kitchen, but just like always, Will is there symbolically too. He's there in the drawings that are on the wall between them in the dead center of the shot. It's a symbol of just how bad things got with Will.

Mike looks at the drawings and says he doesn't understand how Hopper let it go on so long with El there but hidden.

Again, looking at gesturing at the walls. And there's this talk of blame here. "Don't blame her, she's already upset." "I don't blame her, I blame you."

Blame El for... just staying hidden? When Mike can tell she wasn't allowed to talk to him? That doesn't really fit perfectly with the word "blame." What Hopper might mean, instead, is for Mike to not blame El for how bad it got with Will. "Don't blame El for not coming to help sooner, don't blame her for everything that has happened the past couple days." And Mike doesn't, he says he's blaming Hopper.

Another couple things from the full fight scene:

"Protecting her?" Mike sees what happened. Hopper chose to protect El over protecting Will this season (in a way, balancing out his actions from s1, selling out El's location to Brenner to save Will).

"So I should be thanking you?" Along that same line: Mike isn't thinking about his or his family's safety. Brenner is gone, and it sounds like Hopper kept El hidden for reasons he doesn't understand or care about at the cost of Will's safety.

"Nothing about this is okay." There's so many things he's upset and overwhelmed and scared about right now. It's multifaceted, just like so many of Mike's scenes. He's not just mad bc he missed El, there's more there.

After the scene with Hopper, Mike and El are standing away from each other. He even seems to be avoiding eye contact with her? Maybe from embarrassment over his outburst, maybe he just feels weird and conflicted already, feeling the strain of having his attention split when he's already so worried about Will. But either way, the shots are framed with Mike and Hopper together and everyone else with El. He didn't rush out from that fight to stick with El, be close, hold her hand, talk with her more.

And the first time he speaks in this scene it feels a lot like another "I'm the only one who cares about Will" moment. He's put the pieces together and was considering Will's part in all of this. He's not voicing concern about El being in danger again or leaving again, his mind is on Will.

And I think this all goes to the goodbye scene between El and Mike. Mike is concerned about losing people close to him. He can't say goodbye to Will, but he says goodbye to El. She tries to kiss him, he leaves his eyes open and doesn't move closer at all. A car with Will drives away and a car with El drives away, both headed towards danger. He stares after both, scared.

GA viewers assume he's just focused on El as he watches the cars drive away, but he spent most of the season just focused on Will. GA viewers assume Mike's outburst just has to do with loving El, but he spent most of the season trying to help Will, just like s1, except this time he didn't have El, his helpful link to the UD, to make the supernatural mysteries a little bit easier.

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There's something so crushing about the theory that Hopper is actually Will's father, and it truly is the Jonathan of it all. Imagine Jonathan finding out and thinking what? really? For a split second before realizing that no, it's not both of them. That would be crazy. It's just Will. Of course it's just Will.

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Finally got around to finishing this fanart of @henrysglock's RPG-style Scott Clarke ficlet!

[Zoom in for crisp pixels]

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✨ a film for every year of my life ✨ | WarGames (1983) dir. John Badham

What is the primary goal? You should know, Professor. You programmed me.  Oh, come on… What is the primary goal? To win the game. 

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Willel (If They Had Cell Phones)

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he wasted his summer trying to be normal / "fix" himself

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Anyone consider will dying in Mike's arms as a parallel to his death w Joyce and hopper in s1 but the flashbacks are when mike saw them pull his body out of the water. Like his face when he first saw him with the police lights flashing over his face ohhhh my god

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Never let a man walk around with a rhinestone belt and pizza glasses