#Like I get that we're all scarred from queerbaiting and I know you guys are biased from years of shipping these kids.

[eddiezpaghetti]

Okay, so my experience with Stranger Things is a weird one.

I didn't care when it first came out, started to watch it out of "might as well" in 2020, wasn't interested in it enough to make it past S2, forgot about it outside of going "oh, hey, cool, there's a lesbian in it now, I guess," in S3, got really annoyed when "Running Up That Hill" got popular from it because it was a song I listened to on fucking loop after one of my best friends died in high school and I fully expected its appearance in the show to ignore the whole survivor's guilt theme of the song (and was very happy to learn later that it did the exact opposite of ignoring the lyrics), saw people drawing Eddie, suddenly got a lot more interested, watched just the fourth season like a fucking psychopath because I was seriously only there for Eddie, then got interested enough to start the show over properly, having mostly forgotten what I did watch of the show before.

And let me tell you something from the perspective of someone who started with the complete fourth season, who wasn't there from the start, who wasn't tainted by ship goggles or this internal battle of hope and despair, who wasn't theorizing about what the painting could be or expecting Mike and Will to kiss when Volume 2 happened or rooting for Mike and Eleven's relationship to go down in flames or whatever the fuck. Just someone who went blind into Season 4.

It's really fucking obvious that Will and Mike are gonna be endgame.

Like holy fuck. It's so fucking blatant I don't even know why people are nervous.

No sane fucking person would shoot this scene this way if they wanted the audience to care about El and Mike as a couple. Despite being all blurry in the background, Will's reaction to what's happening here is smackdab in the fucking middle, clearly showing that the important part is what's going through his head here. What he's feeling. It's like the opposite of that scene from Kingdom Hearts II where Sora and Riku reunite and Kairi just fucking vanishes into the aether while it's happening because, despite the fact that she was standing between them when the scene began, she doesn't matter to the scene, so she's just kind of gone when the camera angle changes. Will could have been behind one of their heads, or so far in the distance he blends in with the background, but he's not. He's so obvious that despite being massively blurred out, he's still the first goddamn thing you look at. What, you think that's an accident? You think he's in the middle of this dramatic fucking scene because of a mistake? He basically has a big flashing neon arrow pointing at him with "THIS IS THE POINT" being screamed through a megaphone.

And then this?

They're paired up like they're taking fucking prom pictures. Each one of these pairs is so fucking close to one another and so fucking far from everyone else. It's not, "Oh, they're standing vaguely near each other in a group shot," it's fucking Noah's Ark out here. Again, there's no way to take this as an accident. It's not just a framing issue. If they wanted to make the shot look balanced while still not hiding anyone else behind El, they would have scattered people around much more naturally. Even if they wanted to keep Nancy with Jonathan and Hopper with Joyce, there's so much room on that hill for three people to stand on El's left and three on her right. But they didn't do that. They put Mike and Will together on purpose in the most obvious way possible.

Like I get that coming up with crackpot theories is fun in and of itself and I'm not blaming anyone for having fun. I totally get the appeal of arguing a point and reaching for every stupid little thing to pull into it because it's like a game, okay? I've done that. But if you're trying to actually convince someone (whether it's someone who wants to believe or someone who's pissed at the very idea that Mike and Will could be in love), stay away from blue and yellow lights, stay away from costume design, stay away from the existence of closets in backgrounds. And don't worry about whether Mike's gay or bi when he's in love with Will either way. I'll give you a little tip about persuasion: You're only as strong as your weakest argument. Even if you've got strong stuff in there, too, the person you're trying to convince is going to dismiss anything you say as complete insanity the second you start going on an entire tangent about the shape of a character's fucking pocket.

Sometimes, clothes are just clothes. Sometimes, there's a closet in the background because it helps establish that a character is in a bedroom. Sometimes, blue and yellow are just a couple of colors that look nice together. And sure, it might be set designers and costume designers and cinematographers smirking and winking at the audience from behind the camera. But if the show was just those things, instead of those things in the context of everything else, they wouldn't be saying anything of note.

But this?

This tells a story all on its own. Someone with no context can look at this and automatically assume that each paired person is standing with someone they care about deeply, seeking comfort as they watch some sort of disaster unfold. And yeah, romantic couples usually come in twos, and we live in an amatonormative society, so that's going to be the first association anyone makes seeing a bunch of people paired off.

It's the same reason you look at this

And go, "Oh..."

"Those two are probably a couple."

And I genuinely don't understand how people could have watched S4 Vol. 2 and gotten scared. Because as someone who went in with no investment whatsoever, I just looked at these two--

--and went, "Oh, those two are a couple. Good for them." And I moved on. Shut up about the trees for five seconds and just see the forest for what it is.

Oh, and if you're still nervous? Little thing from a storyteller here: You don't leave a hanging thread like "Will confessed his romantic feelings for Mike by projecting them onto El, but Mike either didn't understand or at least didn't say he understood," without coming back to that later. That's Chekov's gun hanging on the wall, babes. It's gonna fire at some point. If Mike was going to reject Will's feelings, if they weren't relevant, they would have had that discussion in Argyle's van. There'd be no reason to leave you in suspense.

[harryisntstraight]

Coming out anon again. I've been meaning to do it for years, but never got the courage. I even have a tattoo of violets on my arm (not that anyone outside of tumblr knows that it symbolizes lady love). I told my best friend years ago and she told me it couldn't be true, it was just because I hadn't had a boyfriend yet which honestly scarred me a bit. Now we're ok though, she gets it I think. Lately I've also been thinking how brave harry is. My heart is bursting with love and admiration.😭

omg a tattoo of violets thats so niceee i’ve been thinking about something similar for a while. but yeah, thats the thing. i think a lot of straight people cant really understand the concept of coming out and how terrifying it is.......at all? like to bring it back to harry you have people still saying stuff like ‘well why cant he just say what he is, its 2018 he’d be accepted’ and its like fffffffmmfmfmmfffgggfgf.........thats not how it works. at all. like us right now we can kind of at least control in some degree who we are and arent ‘out’ to. like i can be out to my mum and best friends without having to be out to like....my homophobic grandma or some random guy on the street thats gonna hurl abuse at me. but being a celeb and being out you dont have that luxury? if you make a blanket statement and release it to the whole world then everybody that reads it knows. like your whole family, all the friends youve ever had and will have, that boss u had 5 years ago. everrryooneeee. thats so scary i cant even imagine. and i also always think about the littler things harry does like ‘not that important’ or ‘dont knock it til you try it’ or wearing the rainbow pin or the love is equal shirt all the way back when. like those kind of things always remind me SO much of myself and other gay people i know. and its like, we all kind of do similar things where we make little lighthearted comments that could be taken as jokes or not that serious whilst still having a degree of truth to them because thats safe? its like testing the waters almost and putting something out there for other people to pick up on without having to deal with the emotional stress & anguish of just straight up saying it yourself. and doing things like wearing rainbows or showing lgbt support wherever you can is also a massive part of that. and thats why it makes me genuinely upset and angry to see people try and take these things away from harry and twist them into ‘ughhhh he was just joking’ or even more gross ‘he’s queerbaiting’ like i just wish ppl would really truly think and put themselves in his shoes for one (1) second and try to understand the magnitude of the seemingly little things he’s doing. he really is brave and mood my heart is so full for him lately i’m genuinely so proud and he deserves all the love and happiness in the world