lolonot4you

[lolonot4you]

In ‘Lucas on the Line,’ Lucas Sinclair experienced countless bouts of racism and micro aggressions including but not limited to:

Had children run away from him and refuse to touch him because they thought his Black skin color would rub off on them. This happened IN THE THIRD GRADE! And he never told his parents about it!

Calmed his anxiety about being the only Black kid in his homeroom class by coming to the realization that since there was no other Black kids that meant he most likely wouldn’t be bombed

Had to install a camera in his locker because his property got defaced by a glitter bomb

Lost his first and only black friend/mentor who supported him thanks to an ACTUAL MAKESHIFT BOMB being installed in his locker that caused a janitor to go to the hospital for 1st/2nd degree burns (and the white boy who did it barely got punished)

Got teased that the only reason he got on the basketball team was because he was Black

Comes to the realization that he might’ve actually only gotten in the team because the coach has a history of recruiting Black boys for the team regardless of their skill level

Gets called an Oreo (for uneducated: white on the inside, black on the outside) by racist bullies. Erica (who apparently has also been called this) sticks up for him and is the only one who understands what the insult means which means Mike and Dustin don’t know/understand the lengths of how deep the racism Lucas experiences in Hawkins on a daily bases

And these aren’t even all of them! These are just examples I had from the top of my head!

And despite all this happening in the book, “fans” have STILL FOUND A WAY to turn this book about Lucas and his struggles as a Black boy in a mostly white suburban town and his deteriorating relationship with Max and make it about Byler!

The fact that Lucas, one of the only characters of color on this show, can’t have ANYTHING to himself without people using him to push their ships is so aggravating!

He and Erica constantly get shit talked and miss characterized by fans, get excluded/cut out of group shots, and barely get any fanart/fics about them and their struggles compared to the white characters (I could make a whole new post about the terrible way this fandom treats Erica but I won’t do that here). Hell don’t forget that the fandom constantly tries to dispute the racism Lucas received in S2 from Billy was either not really racism, just a moment that Duffer Bros. put in to “ruin” Billy’s character and ultimately can be tossed out and ignored.

The only time I ever see Lucas get any large amount of attention is either due to 1) Lumax (but let’s be honest: 90% of the lumax tag on here isn’t even about them and has now become Elumax 2.0 and most post are people praising ElMax and then being like “oh Lucas/lumax is cute too” in the tags and that’s it). 2) people creating “parallels” of Lumax to their ship of choice (mostly Byler and Mileven) as a way to say that their ship is gonna be canon or 3) to say that he’s bisexual.

And all that is fine and whatever, ship and headcanon things to your hearts content, but if you only care about Lucas if he’s helping push you ship narrative or because you think he’s gay (to the point where some people actually read snippets of the book that talked about Lucas coming to the realization that Black boys like him can be considered attractive and only acknowledge the “queer” reading of the text and completely ignored the big race element that was the main focus), I’m sorry but, that’s not cool. The fact that 95% of the Lucas Sinclair tag isn’t about Lucas himself but white characters like Steve, Eddie, Byler says everything about how the fandom treats him.

I’m just so tired.

Lucas Sinclair deserves the same respect that the white characters get!

I leave you one of my favorite sections of the entire book: Lucas learning to become unabashedly himself:

Rant over.

Edit: in my blind rage I realized I forgot to edit out the Twitter handle. That’s completely my fault. Please don’t hate that Twitter user. I’m just coming back to fix that.

[lolonot4you]

now that im really thinking about it, i think it'd actually be super insane if they weren't planned as endame bc mind you, wills feelings for mike didnt come out of nowhere, nor did they develop in the year between s3 and s4, they were always there. in my full honest opinion, i believe they'd been there pre s1 and just grew as they got older. to have all this buildup and make it such a focal point in s4 and even s3, just to have it be like "yeah sorry i dont feel the same way, hope we can still be friends though" like.... i just do not see it ending that way. structural wise, it makes no damn sense and is just incredibly stupid. i dont agree with all the choices the duffer brothers make and i never want to give anyone too much credit, but I don't think they're that dumb nor shallow. they are much smarter writers that that, and i can only hope for the best

thinking abt how next season there will be a real, canon reaction from Mike regarding wills love for him

[lolonot4you]

Never shutting up about these parallels how do people have byler doubt after this 🤔

[lolonot4you]

lumax this entire season was about reworking through their issues and affirming not proving but affirming what both of them already knew. the love they have for each other is very clear but the show never stressed about either of them having to say it, even in max's final moments. to have mike and els strife be that mike cant repeat the words back to her despite ig supposedly knowing he's always felt that way and that he feels like his life started the day he found her in the woods,,, yet he couldn't even write the words as pointed out by el.

i seriously cant wait to see them address this more head on in s5. and this will have to tie in with the painting.

This is one of the biggest byler proofs out there to me....it's insane we need to talk about this more

[lolonot4you]

SWING SET SCENE????

please omg let this be

ITS CONFIRMED LETS FREAKING GO

[lolonot4you]

im thinking this was the moment he was transported into the ud. if we think about it, that's how nancy and henry both got there. i wouldn't be surprised if this was the case but im so excited for this to be showcased in due time

WILLL???? WHATS HAPPENING I NEED TO KNOW WHY IS HE FALLING

[lolonot4you]

you did not omgggg

14 year old mike wheeler, monologuing to eleven: i knew from the moment i met you that i loved you

12 year old mike wheeler, the moment he met eleven: crawl out my window and go knock on my house's door so my mom calls child services on you and you can go back to pennhurst asylum or whatever because i'm way too busy — wait did you say you know about will? where is he? is he okay? you can live in my closet if you help me find him

[lolonot4you]

the parallels between harry potter and will are sometimes just uncanny. when will was saved from the upside down, he was coined with the term "zombie boy"; "the boy who came back to life" same as harrys "the boy who lived." I'm very curious to see where this goes in season 5 bc yes, despite not having much ease in his life and only ever knowing hardships, will was ready to throw down his life if it meant saving everyone else. and i had no idea about noah rewatching the old movies. wasn't chamber of secrets on the s4 movie list board? Interesting

Will is Going to Die by Sacrificing Himself

...and come back to life. To me, it seems pretty obvious, but I'll explain why.

Will has been characterized as someone who puts others before himself since season one, even if it means costing him his life. The entire series starts off with Will casting fireball instead of protection during their Dungeons & Dragons game, putting his character in danger for the sake of the rest of the party.

This self-sacrificial nature is echoed in season two, but two a much more extreme end, when Will instructs everyone to close the gate to stop the Mind Flayer, despite knowing that doing so will kill him.

While we don't see this same self-sacrifice from Will in seasons three and four, we do see two related characters make their own sacrifices, possibly hinting at Will's future fate.

First we have the other character named William, Billy, sacrifice himself at the end of season three in order to stop the meat flayer.

Then in season four, we have Eddie sacrifice himself while the same song that played for Will after he came back to life in season one plays in the background— "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" by Moby.

There are also little ways that we are told/shown of Will's selfless nature, such as giving a girl his tonka truck because she was sad, or giving Mike his painting under El's name. While this trait could be seen as admirable, I think it will ultimately be his undoing.

But why would Will need to sacrifice himself?

Well, we know that despite all of this time, Will still holds a connection to Vecna, and likely to the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down himself. Putting a stop to all of these things is going to be intrinsic to Will's arc next season.

I don't know how many people know about Noah's letterboxd, but he has been rewatching the Harry Potter movies.

Perhaps for personal enjoyment, or perhaps to study for his character?

The comparisons between Will/Vecna and Harry/Voldemort have been made before, and the Duffers are derivative of other sources if anything.

I think that this could be likened to a horcrux situation. At the end of season four, we saw Vecna be totally flambéd by the older teens, and yet, he's still kicking, and Will is the one to tell us this.

If the brain dies the body dies, but also, could the brain latch on to another body in order to keep it alive? Similar to how Harry had to die so that Voldemort could be defeated, I believe Will might have to die (at least temporarily) in order to take down Vecna/MF/UD.

We know that the show is bringing back "Should I Stay or Should I Go," which is going to prompt an important question that Will needs to find the answer to, should he stay or should he go? While this could also relate to his romantic endeavors for the season, I think that the song could be alluding to Will's choice to sacrifice himself in order to save everyone else.

What I think will probably happen is this: At some point in the season, Will is going to learn what has to happen, and he is going to go off to sacrifice himself without telling anyone so no one can stop him. (I'm guessing that Will can't just off himself, there's probably a specific way that it needs to be done).

Something I realized while making this post is that Mike is always the one who figures out what needs to be done, or brings up Will's sacrifice to others. My guess is that Mike is going to find out what Will is up to, and try to stop him. Emphasis on try, because I think this death is inevitable. However, bringing the show back full circle to season one (and because ST can never keep a main character dead), he will come back to life.

[lolonot4you]

"I'm sure this has been done before"

Yes me too but I want to hear your interpretation. I want to hear your play on it. I want to see how you connect the dots, how you shift the puzzle pieces and make them fit. Show me it through your eyes.

[lolonot4you]

no cause this is both of their fights in a nutshell

will: "what happened to us man we used to be best friends"

mike: "bro i am not gay"

the fact that BOTH (all) of byler’s fights have gone like this:

will: *normal, rational criticism about how mike is either ignoring him or damaging their friendship with his behavior*

mike: I AM NOT GAY!!!

this in itself is a huge reason why i think mike is gay. he’s constantly projecting it onto their arguments about their friendship and getting defensive over something will never said or implied

[lolonot4you]

my babies

tried to shut up about willel for five minutes and almost exploded

close ups + my reference !