#and if they do someone has to point out that lucas saved max multiple times already

[starry-eyed-steve]

Max taking the risk in season 2 is the reason she survived so long, and it will (hopefully) be the reason she gets saved in season 5.

I love the angsty lumax scenes comparisons/parallels like every other person, but it's not true that Max getting involved led to her being in a coma in s4. I think people want an angsty Lucas arc for the last season where he blames himself for everything, but I need someone to reassure him it's not because he got Max involved in s2. I believe his guilt will mostly stem from him not being able to stop Jason in time, letting Max go through with the half-baked plan and, in general, letting Max isolate in the months leading up to Vecna. (Which is already enough. Someone needs to give him a hug in s5)

Max being part of the group by accepting the risk, actually saved her life in multiple ways.

In s3, the chance of her dying due to Billy would have been significantly higher than it actually was. Billy would have gotten possessed either way. It was Karen's fault, not Max or the party, that he was at the wrong place at the right time. If Max hadn't known about the Mindflayer or El, she wouldn't have suspected anything, thus making her an easy target to get flayed as well.

If she were to survive s3 on her own, Vecna would have still targeted her because she felt guilty about Billy dying not because she witnessed it but because she wished that something would happen to him to make the abuse she suffered from him stop. And when something did happen, she blamed herself. Her complicated relationship with Billy is the reason why she got cursed. It was never because she took the risk. Her issues stem from outside of the supernatural things. Without Lucas and her friends, she wouldn't have survived the first attack. She would have been confused like Chrissy, Patrick, and Fred, not knowing what was going on and then dying a horrific death.

Taking the risk ensured her to live as long as she did because she had the opportunity to get information that were vitol for her physical well-being.

But taking the risk also gave her the opportunity to live a more fulfilled life. In the beginning of s2, Max was super closed off. She was scared to get close to anyone because of her brother. He was threatening to harm people if Max disobeyed him (aka him trying to run the party over as a scare tatic to get her back under control after the argument). So she pushed Dustin and Lucas away. It was easier and safer for everyone involved. If we take Runaway Max as canon, then Billy actually physically harmed one of her friends, so it's understandable that Max tries her hardest to stay away in the beginning. Only due to Lucas and Dustin constant persuading and pushing she opened up a bit more. And then when Lucas told her the huge secret she was suddenly a part of something so big she had to allow herself to trust others because her life was dependent on it. It gave her the opportunity to be honest and vulnerable to an outsider, which also then led her to free herself from her brother's control by the end of s2. Meeting Steve and the rest and seeing that someone was willing to protect her from her brother's abuse gave her the strength to set boundaries, which then allowed her to be happier and more open. She met El and found amazing friends in the party, which she wouldn't be close otherwise. It also allowed her to have a different relationship with Billy. In s3, they seemed to be more relaxed before everything went south.

Without getting involved, she probably would still be the closed off girl she was at the beginning of s2. She would still be under Billy's control until he died. And then she would be alone without anyone really looking out for her, which would lead to her definite death in s4.

Lucas saved her physically and emotionally by giving her the opportunity to take the risk. And because of that, she can still be saved in s5.

[willbyersabyss]

Will's Blood Transfusion Dilemma

Will is going to be injured and in need of a blood transfusion.

It's revealed in TFS that Henry's blood type changed after he got lost in the UD for 12 hours. His blood was then used to replicate his powers through blood transfusions. It's pretty clear that Will's blood type is also different because he went through an identical experience to Henry.

The Flayed were also given powers through Mind Flayer blood type changes, which looks very similar to Will's s1 predicament. Later, they have black blood flowing through their veins. That's the special power blood.

Alright so Will has the Flayed blood type that Henry also has. So what?

Well there are multiple signs about blood donations at the end of s4 which are likely foreshadowing someone needing a blood transfusion in s5. At the same time, they're going to have to introduce the concept of different UD blood types AND make Will aware that he has the special blood type. But there's a way to do all three at once.

Will is going to be severely injured.

In the blood donation screenshot, the arrow is pointing outside. Earlier on, we see the tent (red and white stripes) for blood donations and then it transitions directly to... Will. Along with the ominous caption of death toll numbers rising. Hm. Blood donations... death toll... Will.

The camera also pans to Mike after we see Will. Is this possibly foreshadowing Will sacrificing himself to save Mike?

There's another blaring blood donation sign in the hospital. "Be a hero, give blood." Will is practically shining in the spotlight in this scene. Everyone else, El, Mike, Lucas, even Max, are wearing blue clothes in a very blue hospital room. Will is wearing yellow. He stands out against blue because they're complimentary colors. We are meant to focus on him. The sign is yellow too. They're linked!

Will is also awkwardly lingering in the back of El and Lucas' hug for no apparent reason. In the second image, it looks like he's looking directly at the blood donation sign. Will’s general aura is off-putting in this scene. He's just standing there... MENACINGLY. So I feel like this strange behavior is linked to something hospital related.

Now into the grit of this theory. At some point in s5, Will is going to get hurt, likely in a self-sacrificial nature, and lose a lot of blood. This will pose a dilemma for our characters because he can't undergo a regular blood transfusion because he doesn't have normal blood. They'll have to find a way to get Will more of the UD blood FAST to save his life. But how?

There are a few possibilities. The most interesting possibility, in my opinion, has to do with El. El has the special blood too. The lab gave her blood before starting NINA (see here). So El may need to donate her blood to Will.

The sign we see in the hospital has a pretty good hint at this. "Be a hero, give blood." El is constantly referred to as a hero. She could be the hero donating blood! This is hammered in as Lucas is describing how Max was brought back to life by a miracle, who we know was El. They practically zoom in towards the sign during these lines. She might need to bring someone back to life again.

This would be the quickest solution... but it may come at a cost. We know that the Mind Flayer sucked Henry's blood out of El in s3 and this made her lose her powers. It's possible that El donating her blood to Will could take her powers away. She'll have to make a choice between her powers and her brother's life.

This would cover all the bases. The different blood type, Will having said blood type, and the origin of the powers.

There is an issue with this part of the theory, though. El would need to get her powers back again. She'd have to venture back to the lab to get more of Henry's blood that I'm almost 100% certain they have stored. This would be repetitive considering she spent the entirety of s4 trying to get them back, and there's no way she's ending the show without her powers. That's just not what her arc is about.

BUT it's possible that El's blood transfusion won't take away her powers. El could still be the donator without sacrificing her own abilities. This would make El's donation foreshadowing work without being repetitive if she can give just enough to save him and her powers.

I'll still go over the other possibilities to be safe:

Instead of doing double El transfusions, they could go directly to the source. They get to the lab, find the blood, and save Will that way. But this would take too long. If Will is truly under dire circumstances, he won't have time to wait around for them to find more blood.

So... what if they go to the source source: the Mind Flayer slash Vecna. Let's say the injury occurs in the Upside Down. At that point, it may be faster to get it straight from the source instead of running around trying to find El.

We know the Mind Flayer/Vecna wants Will alive. So if Will intercepted an attack from one of them because they were going to hurt someone he cares about, it would ruin whatever plan Vecna has for Will. Vecna would be forced to give Will the blood himself to keep him alive.

Will needing an abnormal blood transfusion would also play into the AIDS metaphor that's very present in his storyline. If Will goes to the hospital before knowing about his special blood type, he may encounter the homophobic stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS because of his condition and the town's assumption of his sexuality. That would bring this narrative string from a metaphor to a literal commentary.

Oh and while I was typing this post there was an (apparent) casting call for a nurse with hematology experience. You know, the study of blood disorders. Well there you have it!

So yeah. Will seems like a big contender for the blood donation receiver that's foreshadowed at the end of s4. What kind of injury I’m not sure, but it has to be BIG and BLOODY. Good luck out there, son.

[brionysea]

while steve was driving max, lucas, and dustin around during dear billy, there were some lyrics from "hard feelings" by al kerbey from the radio. lucas was looking at max and max was choosing to stare out the window instead of looking at lucas while they played, implying that it's lucas's perspective on the max situation

you talk a lot, but you don't say much in the things you do / you're always right / in all our fights

so lucas can't win arguments with max, which makes things difficult when they're all trying to keep her alive while she's being targeted by the allegorical teen suicide monster and needs to want to keep herself alive. lucas has been trying to get through to her the most, even before the curse, so the difficulty of the situation is framed from his perspective

from as far back as season 2, when lucas got girl advice from his dad after a fight with max, the rule has been "she's never wrong". max is literally always right when she's arguing with lucas, which makes that one line of the song - "you're always right" - perfect. lucas cannot win

during their argument over the party keeping secrets in season 2, the five times max dumped lucas prior to season 3, and the multiple times lucas chases after max in season 4, she usually ends up walking away from him and leaving him standing alone. max mentioned to el while giving her advice that she usually waits for lucas to "fix" whatever happened to cause their breakup, but he can't fix it. this time wasn't a simple, juvenile break up, and you can't "fix" someone's depression. especially not if they actively refuse your help, don't open up to anyone, and isolate themselves

because no one else can shut you down / or turn you around, you should see yourself

this is the part that always catches my attention. it's less specific to lucas and max's relationship, because lucas said during their conversation after max's therapy session that it's not about max being his girlfriend. he's worried about her and wants her to be okay. if someone else could get through to her while he was unable to, he wouldn't care, as long as it helped her. the perspective widens to more than just their relationship at this point of the song

so who can get through to max? the party. el, since she saved max's life and i'm pretty sure she's going to be heavily involved in getting max back in season 5. el was about equally shown in max's running up that hill montage as lucas was. but the lyrics sound more... combative, than el and max's relationship really is. they're adorable, and i love their friendship, but i can't see el getting through to max in the way the lyrics imply; with enough tough love to make her see what she's doing to herself and cut it out

you know whose relationship with max is fairly combative, though? the one person missing from the dear billy group, which is almost a perfect match for the one that went to the tunnels in season 2 (where the "getting grabbed around the ankle by a vine" parallel comes from)? mike.

in the season 4 episode, the group was literally hanging out in mike's basement. mike got two (two!) mentions by name from max. and at the same time, mike was in lenora plotting a way to get back to hawkins with will and jonathan, while will was reminding him (and the audience) that mike is an important factor in saving his friends from danger. mike's absence from hawkins is heavily emphasised, and not for the first time - dustin's reaction when he fully realised they had to deal with the upside down without mike was a lot of panicked swearing, and for good reason from the way things turned out

mike spent season 1 taking care of el, season 2 taking care of will, and then swung back to el again for season 3. he takes care of whoever is at the centre of the story - except for season 4, where he was removed from the centre of the story so that he couldn't help max, they could feasibly lose, and season 5 could be set up

max and mike are usually butting heads, but i would argue that it's always in the interest of getting through to each other, making each other the best version of themselves, and/or keeping each other safe. even when one of them's being unreasonable, like when mike was mad at max for "corrupting" el, max eventually got through to him. he apologised to el and told her he was happy she was friends with max, and they spent the end of the season as a trio. max probably would have been helpful on mike's side of things in season 4, since will was concerned about him but ultimately not all that helpful in giving mike the advice he wanted to hear - permission to break up with el and still have her in his life, basically, which max was lobbying for all throughout season 3. max has never held a grudge against mike (she doesn't hold grudges at all, really, except towards her abuser, and even there she hates herself for it), so she would have been as sympathetic as she has been before (very, for the record - i would point you towards the scene they had in the byers kitchen in season 2) towards his side of things

but back to max: mike has been shown to argue with his friends willingly putting themselves at risk, even if he's the only one in the room doing it (when el was looking for the flayed in season 3, when el and hopper went to the lab in season 2, when will got them the "close gate" message, when el sacrified herself to take down the demogorgon). during that blow up argument in season 3, mike got max on the defensive. "no one else can shut her down," except mike. when he brought up how the girls spied and broke his trust, she started making excuses and her arguments became a lot more aimless and weaker until she generally dipped out of the conversation. there was one pointed look towards mike after that, urging him to trust el's calls on her own powers, but not another word from max on the topic

mike would have been just as stubborn if he was there to see max "risking her life for no reason" instead of el - he tried to drive max away from the party to keep her away from the upside down and out of danger in the first place - and unlike lucas, he would have actually had a shot of out-stubborning her, getting through to her, and/or otherwise helping with the situation. she probably would have gotten defensive and given as good as she got, but i really fail to see how that would be a problem. they both needed that push, and no one else was really around either of them to provide it. mike was a lot of help with will's episodes in season 2, which are similar to the trances curse victims go into in season 4, so emotionally and logistically, there was a mike-shaped hole in hawkins

[emblazons]

I've thought about this a couple of times already, but i wanted to see your opinion on it; do you think Max is going to wake up early into the season or will it happen in like.... a climax moment in the later episodes? Because it feels like they'd want it to happen in the later episodes bc what is the point of putting her in a coma, right? But i think it could feel jarring if she stays in a coma for the majority of her screentime, so not sure how they are gonna do that especially if there is some sort of a time skip. I wonder if they will reduce her screentime and mostly focus on Max through Lucas and El's dedication to save her, instead of focusing on Max's POV/character? It could also align with what the duffers said about returning to the OG characters (the boys and El). Like. That sounds like Max will stay in a coma for a while to me while we watch El and Lucas trying to save her instead.

Honestly—and I’m gonna be transparent with you in saying that this isn’t based on any deeply researched fact or analysis, because that’s not really where my focus has been for most of my rewatches—I personally think Max will probably be in a coma for a solid portion of the season, but…we might get more scenes with her as we learn what exactly Henry does to the people whose essence he absorbs…since we already know they aren’t “gone,” just “in here” the way One tells us they are.

Even if Max isn’t out of her coma, her consciousness has to be somewhere—probably something similar to what happens when people have vecna visions x a million, because it’s all consuming and (at this point at least) unbreakable without learning the mechanism for recovering people from Henry/One/Vecna?

It is canonically possible to ‘break into’ Henry’s mind through a possession or “taking” (if you want to call it that) already though, considering Will managed a bit of it when Henry was in his mind (while still alive physically)…and we also get him asking how Max “got into his head” when she somehow leaves the vision he is terrorizing her with re:Billy to head into his mindspace.

At least to me, this means it’s (perhaps) entirely possible for Max to be aware somewhere with some aspect of agency and consciousness (given she, unlike the others he took, is still physically alive) despite being in a coma in the physical world….which means we might still get her perspective.

Learning how to “free” Max might take a while for our characters, which means Max’s body will in fact be in that coma for a while—but that doesn’t mean we won’t have interactions with Max (or see Sadie) for the majority of the season. Even if we follow her struggle to understand Henry from whatever space she occupies alongside all the others he’s taken before, we might see a fair amount of her…especially since The Duffers love taking multiple (seemingly disparate) storylines and meshing them to a specific end…in this case, Max’s soul returning (however that is accomplished) to her body.

Outside the universe of stranger things though…I also don’t think The Duffers are foolish enough to spend an entire season relegating someone who is easily one of their most objectively gifted actors (a woman casted in an Aronofsky film no less) to lying in a bed the majority of the season, even if it doesn’t come about in the most linear way. Max’s internal perspective as someone who has worked alongside the party and El for three seasons now trying to sort through Vecna “from the inside” is also an insanely unique opportunity for a writer imo, and would be a waste to throw out to just leave her in a lifeless coma until she’s saved.

But again—that’s not analysis, just me wondering (and maybe a little hoping) aloud. Still, thanks for the ask!

[frog4278]

Even MORE useless Stranger Things headcanons with @dawg3i and some stolen from TikTok thank you

Steve and Robin cannot spell restaurant. They will spend hours trying to figure it out. Do NOT make them spell receipt

Mike is terrified by butterflies. HE HATES THEM!!!!

Steve puts his shoes on the wrong feet sometimes and he never notices

Modern Stranger Things AU where Holly likes to watch Miraculous Ladybug and Mike hates it because the main villain Hawkmoth literally is themed after a butterfly and uses butterflies to attack people

Nancy pulls up a picture of that one Spongebob episode with the butterfly (yk the image) and chases Mike around with it

He's screaming crying throwing up

All Lucas has is a pollen allergy and a girly sneeze against the world

Eddie is terrified of dogs. Even if it's tinniest dog in the world Eddie will still call it bloodthirsty and out to get him

Erica has chased Eddie with the intent to kill on multiple occasions

Robin has no idea how to swim and if she was left alone she would drown in three feet of water. Steve tries to teach her how to swim and it never works.

Steve Harrington caught teaching a graduated band kid how to swim in a crowded ass pool in the middle of July

Robin: Steve you gotta go. It’s too deep. I’m drowning. Save yourself

Steve: Rob it’s 3ft deep

At the end of the day Steve gives up and gets her those arm floaties

But imagine how scary that would be for Robin at Lover's Lake

The feeling of losing all the air in your lungs and your body slowly going into panic mode because oh God you can't breathe you can't breathe

and then she feels a hand grab her arm and pull her into the Upside Down and it’s Nancy

Anyways Robin and Steve pretending to be siblings when someone’s like “So… how long have y’all been together ;)" is fucking gold. They don’t hold back. They get offended. They ruin friendships.

"We just ended a relationship"

"Who's"

"points at a bickering couple theirs"

Steve can't play any instrument if he touches it it will fall apart

Eddie will NEVER live to the day he lets Steve touch his guitar

Steve touches it and it blows up like a pipebomb

Jonathan is a cryptid. Will goes into the kitchen at 3 AM for a glass of water and finds Jonathan hunched over a bag of shredded cheese with nothing but the open fridge light illuminating his face

Sometimes Will joins him

El is just concerned

Then she goes back to befriending the wolf spider in their house

Nancy plays tennis and is very competitive about it

Robin bites string cheese

Steve still counts on his fingers

Will has drank from his paint water cup on accident several times

Max chews her nails

[doriandrifting]

What do you think are the MAIN main byler proofs thorough the show which would be like, the most eye-opening for someone who's not into the theorizing scene and byler in particular? like 'prove me that byler is real like i'm a baby' kind of thing, something that's hard to argue with etc. (asking multiple blogs just because i'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts)

Crazy Together. Sure, holding hands can be platonic. But are we shown any of the other boys holding hands at any other time in the show?

Mike looks for Will even after seeing a dead body. Mike doesn’t go looking for El despite seeing her alive in his window.

The movie dates. Lucas literally calls it “romantic time” with Max. He also criticizes Mike for not having any romantic time with El. Mike could be at Hopper’s having a movie night with El, but he’s out having romantic time with Will.

The fact that in S3, when Mike finally explains to El that the reason he’s been avoiding her is because of Hopper, she says, “You’re still lying.”

The airport scene. Mike hugs Dustin in the first episode. Will runs into Dustin’s arms in the last episode. Mike, Will, and Lucas group hug. Why can’t Mike hug just Will? What is even the point of making that a thing if not for Byler?

An entire season of Mike being unable to tell his girlfriend that he loves her one-on-one, while simultaneously being shown that Mike is capable of emotional vulnerability through Will.

Mike and El don’t have plans. A date at Enzo’s, six kids and a house in the suburbs, college together, a movie date, nintendo forever��why does every pairing have an imagined future together but Mike/El?

The painting—it really has no point of being this major big deal and drawing in everyone’s curiosity over eight episodes for the reveal to go nowhere. Why base Mike’s love confession on a lie?

The biggest one, the only one I personally need, is that our characters lose, really lose, for the first time immediately following Mike’s confession. Love is supposed to be the most powerful weapon of all, and yet on a show that frequently requires saving the world, Mike and El’s love is not enough to keep Hawkins from falling. So if Mike and El’s love can’t do it, someone else’s will…

[brotherslayer]

hey, may i ask, why do you dislike lucas! just wanna know i’m pretty curious bc everyone loves him lol. also, what about luc//athy? i wanna know your thought process. i’m not on either side, really. i don’t ship stuff but i’m invested in the drama of this fandom lmao

1. he calls Athy an idiot

2. the way he disrespects Jennette and refuses to treat her as a human being by calling her chimera

3. how the narrative tries to make me care for him so badly that it almost feels manipulative (he had abusive parents, then got adopted by another abusive parental figure after his parents abandoned him). In the 200+ years he lived there was no one who cared about him.

4. threatened to kill her (I think?), threatened to kill Blackie even though he knew it was basically her soul animal and the loss would wound her deeply

5. how he kind of enjoyed the power he had over her because he saved her and blackie and how he acted all innocent in front of others and Athy didn't dare to tell her father (did she fear that he wouldn't believe her?)

6. "Your father cares alot about you." Said father is a mass murderer who considered to murder her multiple times. Their relationship is toxic to the max, how Claude sees her mother in her till the day of her debutante ball, their images literally overlapping (it's not cute), how he doesn't want her to meet other people or ever leave the palace, how she has created a fake persona to please him. How does Lucas not realize that this is a toxic relationship when he is over 200+ years old and has likely seen stuff like this before? Lucas knows that Athy is/was deep down fucking terrified of her father since their first encounter where he pointed out that Blackie always runs away, because her divine beast reflects her inner desire to escape the palace. And despite all that he says that Claude cares about her, which might have influenced Athy in her decision to go back to Claude after the murder attempt and forgive him.

5. he ate LP Athy's mana beast and then fucked off to work with the Imperial Wizards and didn't even intervene when LP Athy got executed. He was possibly indirectly responsible for her death since she couldn't use her mana to escape and got killed.

6. so ready to commit genocide on innocents if Athy had died (I only like stuff like this if it's yanderes doing it)

7. appears in her bedroom at night when she is sleeping and touches her her and stuff. I think he also put her to sleep without asking for consens, which is something Claude also did.

8. everyone worships him and treats him like a god. if you don't worship him you are evil.

9. interrupts Athykiel scenes all the time and copied Ijekiel's handkiss in the library. After he saw Ijekiel kiss her hand he did the same. Made himself taller than Ijekiel. Stole Ijekiel's title as soft charisma prince at the tea party.

10. some of his fans

This scene made me dislike him alot:

I can't really explain why but when he destroyed the effort Athy had put into braiding his hair and adorning them with flowers, and how he acted rudely afterwards...this is the scene where I came to realize how much I disliked him. Idk why it's something so minor and insignificant.

11. I'm biased af, but in my opinion Lucathy is detrimental to Athy's character. Once I saw someone argue that the reason why Lucas is so perfect for Athy is, because she has daddy issues and Lucas is similar to her father and...well they are not wrong but this is actually a reason why I think they should never be together. (Unless you want to make it a toxic relationship.) She'll never get rid of her role as a living emotional crutch and morality chain. The way she seeks out a romantic relationship with boy who has a similar personality to her father, reminds me how some abusive victims have a tendency to latch onto toxic people, because this kind of behaviour feels familiar and comforting. They are used to it, they know how to deal with that.

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

What's your opinion on Padmé falling in love with Anakin while knowing that he killed a bunch of tuskin people and how he technically can't be in a committed relationship? Do you think it makes her an immature person or just someone who made the wrong choice?

Different anon:

Aaaah, I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Padmé. I dislike her as a character - as in, I don't particularly enjoy seeing her onscreen - but I try not to let that affect my opinion on her moral character. (I mean, I absolutely adore Dooku but I'm aware that he's a piece of shit, and I'm not really into the OT but I am aware that Luke and Leia are objectively shining beacons of goodness even if I'm not really interested in them.)

So since I kinda dislike her - again, based purely on personal taste, and I do genuinely recognize and appreciate her bravery or kindness even though I skip the Padmé-centric eps/scenes given the choice - I don't really think about her, or talk about her, except in the context of Anidala. (And that's because it's often brought up when talking about the Jedi Order, the one thing I'm much more interested in.)

Hence, I have to honestly say that I don't entirely know how she was intended to be understood. I do think at least some of the issues with the discrepancy between her morals and her behavior can be attributed to clumsy writing. If I had to go and hazard a guess as to how we were meant to see her behavior, it'd be blinded by love ('her judgement clouded by her emotions,' to use the appropriate Star Wars term), and somewhat selfish - but I certainly don't think Lucas meant for her to be a self-centered oblivious monster.

Regarding her telling Anakin he's breaking her heart, I disagree with the interpretation that it was because he was advocating for fascism now, and that was worse than what he'd done. I think it's simply that she was in complete denial up to that point - she didn't believe that he had killed the younglings, because she couldn't believe it (and she could still lie to herself about it because Anakin wasn't admitting to anything up to this point, just saying vague stuff about his powers and saving her). But then he says "I have brought peace to the Republic," and she just can't deny the truth any longer, and that's what makes her back and way and change her mind. It's not that fascism is worse than slaughter, it's that Anakin spewing bs is what opens her eyes, and so it's fascism and slaughter hitting her in the face at the same time.

The issue of the Tuskens is a more complicated one - though believe me, I have ripped into her often enough about it. But what are we meant to understand? That she takes Anakin at his word and thinks the Tuskens are indeed animals? That she just refuses to delve too deeply into the implications of Anakin's actions because she cares about him and she doesn't want to see his life ruined, and so she purposely blinds herself to reality?

I honestly don't know.

I don't know what we were meant to take away. I don't know how Lucas and Co wanted her to be read.

But if you're asking me how I read her...

My understanding of her marrying Anakin despite the rules is that she doesn't get the Order's rules, and so both her and Anakin convince themselves that What They Are Feeling Isn't Wrong (which, true, their love in and of itself isn't wrong) - when it's not the issue with their marriage. I think it was terribly near-sighted of her to marry him (in regard to her own career + the issues it raised regarding the Jedi's neutrality) and disrespectful to the Order as well (which again, I don't think she really understands). As Senator, she has some degree of power over them - so her flouting their rules and marrying one of their apprentices (not even a Knight) really rubs me the wrong way. She could have - should have - asked him to leave the Order for her, instead of accepting to live in secret, and he probably would have done it if she'd been the one asking. (And yeah, "but how could she ask that of him?" - well, Satine couldn't ask that of Obi-Wan so the two of them didn't get together - conundrum solved.)

Also, not disclosing such a connection to anyone - in the middle of a war - was beyond irresponsible. Irl, a high-profile member of government marrying a general during a full scale conflict and not telling anyone would get their asses in SO. MUCH. TROUBLE, and justly so. (And Padmé and Anakin's relationship ended up being a huge liability in the war on multiple occasions).

Her attachment to Anakin blinds her to who he is, to her duty, and to everything that truly matters. She is willing to overlook things she should never have let happen - like the whole situation with Clovis. Can you imagine the political shitshow that would have caused? You have the Senator of the planet the Chancellor is from manipulating her ex - the head of the neutral Banking Clans - with her current Jedi love - a member of the politically neutral Order the Senate oversees - shadowing them both and eventually beating the crap out of said ex. What would that look like? Are the Jedi influencing her? Is the Chancellor using her connection to Clovis? Is she the one influencing both the Order and the Banking Clans to profit her planet, with the approval of the Chancellor? We know it's not what's happening, but it could have led to a complete catastrophe, and she did nothing to safeguard herself against that.

Or when she traded Anakin for Grievous without telling anyone. That was a political nightmare as well, not to mention highly unethical.

So all in all, I don't know how much we were meant to criticize her for all of it, and how much we were meant to empathize with her. Since I personally don't like her, I had a hard time feeling sorry for her most of the time - except for when Anakin scares her or physically hurts her - but that's my own bias. I don't think she's a bad person - or at least, I don't think the worst implications of the way she was written were intentional. (Like how she waited eight months to tell Anakin she was pregnant, since RotS happens over a week max.)

I don't agree with bashing her, or tearing her character down completely, since I don't think that's what we were supposed to take away, but again I don't really know. But to sum it up: to me, Anidala was a gigantic mistake on many different levels, for many more reasons than just Anakin being a Jedi.

[kaypeace21]

People seem to misinterpret what I’ve said in the past about mike “projecting his feelings for Will” on to El. So I’ll clarify.

When I say mike is “projecting his romantic feelings” for Will on to el. That doesn’t mean mike doesn’t care about El (at all) as a friend. Or sees El as Will (that’s not even how projection works -or what I’ve said). Although Mike isn’t perfect, he’s naturally empathetic and grateful for all El has done to help him and his friends. And he does see Will & El as 2 different people- despite the romantic projection. And unlike Will, he sees El in a more familial way- rather than romantic (despite him trying to force it to be romantic) .More on that later.Heck, Mike has already incorrectly  projected his NON-ROMANTIC emotions on to 3 other characters other than El (it’s a pattern of his to project his feelings about one person on to another)- which yes I’ll also discuss.

I guess I have to specify what projection is -like i’ve already inferred in prior posts .There’s a difference between projecting  “feelings” you have for one person on to another VS thinking those 2 people are literally the same person with no differences between those 2 people/or not acknowledging the unique personal relationships you have with both.  This misconception is used as a popular counter-argument/strawman argument -rather than just debating the points i’ve made) .  Ex) It’s like if you’re anger at your boss- but you can’t yell at them so you (subconscious or otherwise) are (unfairly) angry/irritable to your romantic partner later. It doesn’t mean you literally think your romantic partner and boss are 1 in the same - or there is no distinction between those 2 relationships. The same goes for how Mike views El and Will, despite “projecting”  his “romantic feelings for Will” on to El (although Mike does so poorly).

 Mike most likely projects his romantic feelings for Will on to El

In s3) he kisses El with a drawing of Will behind her head -that he can look at as he kisses her ... that should be an obvious hint he’s projecting (subconscious or otherwise) .��

That’s Will -light brown hair/bowl cut, has fire powers like ‘Will the wise’.There’s also the fact that multiple characters in s1 mistook El for a boy (specifically Will) . Benny saying to El, “trying to steal from me boy?” Another man at Benny’s place mistook her for Will and said she could be “the byers boy... same height”. Hopper tracked El for most of s1 thinking it was Will. Homophobic Troy who harassed mike / talked about Will being gay said about El “ her head’s shaved she doesn’t even look like a girl”, officer callahan said “what’s Will doing with a shaved head?” The writers of ST are trying to tell you to pay attention to the fact el had a “ boyish /Will-like” appearance (and despite this- Mike was supposedly into her in s1). Then we had s2 byler parallel s3 mileven to show him fail to project his romantic feelings of Will on to el: Crazy together vs blank makes you crazy, , shed scenes: most important thing vs it was the best thing, Will & El calling for mike in the upsidedown (and mike coming for Will only), “they’re not in love they’re not even from the same planet” vs “welcome to my world”,  Will having pics of Mike smiling on Halloween looking at him vs El having a pic of Mike glaring on Halloween,  mileven paralleled to luke/leia & byler to king tristan/Han, byler paralleled to Venkman/Dana a ghost busters couple vs El just being a ghost and mike a ghost hunter, the s3 fight vs breakup  and the various contrasts between all 3 (showing Will upset and El happy - and mike caring more about resolving his fight with Will than El- and never apologizing to El for lying ). I went into more detail here about the parallels between mileven/byer, mileven,stancy,Karen/ted , etc here.

And when he tells El “I can’t lose you again” It’s supposed to be ambiguous-cause Mileven like stobin is a straight bait. The fact is 2 prior times in season 2 (when mike was in the center of the group) he sadly watches Will as Will gets in a car and drives away. 

Hinting to the viewer he’s actually thinking and worrying about losing Will (that 3rd time in s2 when he’s talking to El and seeing the cars with El/ Will drive away) . He once again is in the center of the group like the prior  2 scenes. And he already lost Will before and Will  (like el) also had a fake d*ath. So yeah...we hear mike tell el that line and mike watches both El and Will leave in cars (and starts to cry) since mike knows that Will (unlike superpowered El) may d*e from his possession and he may never see him again. And it’s not like he can tell Will that line when he’s unconscious/possessed (especially in front of his friends) .

Just like in s2, when mike watches El and Will drive away .... he does so again in s3. And it’s similarly ‘ambiguous’, on who he’s upset seeing drive away.  But, Mike turns to looks at the byers house, and  tries to catchup with his friends (which has identically framing to an earlier scene in s3 of Will sadly turning to look at mike leave with El and then turning back to rush and  catchup with the gang). Will turned around cause of Mike (not El) just like Mike turned around thinking of Will (not El). Just like s2,s3 uses earlier scenes in that particular season to give us hints about who he’s actually sad about driving away .

And in that moving away montage -  it only pans to mike and Will .

And has Mike hug his mom in the same way he did in s1.  Both represent moments representing him ‘losing Will’ (through his fake d*ath/moving away).  Mike both times storms into the house and Karen rushes to him nervous and unsure why he’s upset , but goes into hug him when mike reaches for her (needing comfort). Unlike the mileven hug that’s outside and he doesn’t reach for her at all- she hugged him because she was worried  (was he upset -sure but it’s not a parallel to the s3 hug). And they played “we can be heroes” for both hugs - cause both times mike lost Will.

And that s2 car scene where he talked to El (just like the prior s2 car scenes) was indicative of his fear of losing Will (not El).  Which happened at the end of s3. It all ties together. Cause again , he was thinking of Will!

They even had several movies on the st list (altered states / children of paradise) have this concept of projecting romantic feelings of someone they’re in love with on to someone else. Altered states -has a guy just like Will hallucinate flashing to another dimension . People say about him and his wife “he’s crazy and she’s crazy about him”. And when they weren’t together she says she had to pretend everyone she dated was him (but that it only made her feel worse cause it wasn’t him) .And she says about doing so “’it’s crazy”. And her friend says “i think that’s how it’s supposed to be.” CAN THEY GET MORE CLEAR with the projection?

Heck, even El projects on to Mike. While mileven is separated between s1-2 she watches the soap opera (’all my children’) and pretends to be Erica kane (who in the episode El was watching) got into a rushed elopement to MIKE ROY (who was a writer).Aka she projected romance from soap operas/her possible crush of MIKE roy onto MIKE wheeler.And Erica/Mike weren’t endgame- even had a lot of st*liking after the break up (similar to El’s spying)

Mileven and Byler are very different- much to Mike’s annoyance. And Mike projects this anger of not being able to love El romantically on to Max,Will, & Hopper.

Mileven and byler are very different even if mike wishes he had romantic feelings for El (like he does for Will). Mileven is paralleled to hopper/el cause mike truly sees her in a familial way- both teach her the definitions of compromise vs promise (and make promises to her), say to eat “real food” and not eggos, keep her hidden away and safe. Both say her new look is “cool” and El in response to both says it’s “bitchin” and both say back “yeah bitchin”. Both claim someone is “corrupting” El (when trying to dictate her romantic decisions ) and Joyce/Max tell both guys they don’t respect El’s ability to make her own “decisions”. And El says to both of them “you lie” while Max says El should figure out what she likes and not simply listen to Hopper and Mike.  Also similar to what she does with kali /Max (a sister/friend) El copies expressions from all 4 of them ( bitchin,  i make my own rules , not stupid, mouth breather/friends don’t lie).  Mileven is also paralleled to Luke/leia, and multiple people say El is like a “sister “ (lucas) and “cousin” (dustin) in s1. Even El asks before he first kisses her if Mike will he be “like (her) bother.”

In s2, Max (with the gang at Will’s house) asks how mike can still trust Will despite being possessed and in s3 max (with the gang at El’s house) calls out mike for not trusting El.  “El has saved the world twice. And Mike still doesn’t trust her!”And instead of Mike admitting that truth -that he doesn’t trust El who he doesn’t know well (who spied on him) he projects all the blame/distrust wrongly on to max saying “you want to talk about trust ?REALLY?! After YOU made eleven spy on us!” And when max says it was el’s idea he yells exasperated into Max’s face “guess girlfriends don’t lie they spy!” He shows he’s aggravated with the fact El is so against lying but had no qualms with spying. But only yells at Max (not El) and he even tries (incorrectly) claiming Max is “corrupting” El and making her do things she didn’t want to do . Cause he’s still in denial and wants to fall in love with El- and doesn’t want to see any of El’s flaws that would make it harder to do so ( so he just  projects that anger on to max instead).

And we know during the byler fight: Will calls El “stupid” but he was just projecting his own feelings about himself on to EL-since right after this he calls himself “stupid” 4x. So it’s likely when Mike yells back “El’s not stupid. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”   Like Will, It’s AGAIN Mike PROJECTING his insecurities about himself (aka not liking girls) and his relationship issues with El - on to Will. Rather than an actual statement on Will’s se*uality. Sort of like Mike lashing out and projecting his anger about his failing romantic relationship with El on to Max .

The simple fact is el is mike’s safe option (she physically resembles Will but is a girl and thus he’s allowed to be attracted to her- in conservative 80s America). However, we see the more El develops into her own person and differs from Will in personality (plus , the fact puberty is making the distinction between genders more apparent) the harder it is for Mike to fool himself and project.The writers in s3 make a telemarketing joke just to have mike say “el, no, not interested” (aka his true feelings).Mileven in s3 was called “b*llshit” like stancy (which have multiple parallels and weren’t in love ). And nancy admitted to Jonathan (a byers ) she wanted to be with him the whole time. But ,despite that, got back with Steve (and continued to kiss Steve all the time, and even lied saying she loved Steve for an entire year) essentially mileven. Karen /ted also is paralleled to Stancy & mileven- who were “never in love” . Then , Max says friends don’t lie but “boyfriends (mike) LIE all the time” (aka he’s lying about his romantic feelings), and when lucas asks WHY he lied to el -it pans to Will (the real reason he lies to El about his feelings for her). When El asks “why do you lie” (he just is silent and stares up guilty).  Lucas says about mileven (right before Dustin says they’re “bullsh*t” that “they’re lying”.And when he tries confessing to El, he never apologizes for lying and just used the similar ‘crazy’ line he used on Will (in s2). Cause if he actually stopped lying - he couldn’t continue to use her as a beard and date her/try and get back together.  Plus he also fought with Hopper in s2 (’about El’) in WILL’S ROOM . He wasn’t actually calling Hopper the liar he  was PROJECTING and calling himself “a stupid disgusting liar”out of self hate .  That scene was foreshadowing his lying to El in s3 (about his feelings for her). He blamed Hopper for his feelings for Will cause he told himself it wouldn’t have escalated if El had been around to ‘fix him’ . “I BLAME YOU! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OK! NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS OK. YOU STUPID DISGUSTING liar, liar, liar, liar”.starts crying. And then it zooms to Mike’s crying face and pans to El (who he would lie to constantly the next season).

I  also discussed in detail here how the bathroom stobin confession paralleled the mileven grocery confession- and again 1 in each of the couplets is gay. Heck, the “first i love you” plays only 2x in s3: when steve confesses to gay-robin and  when el confessed to mike and kisses him and Mike doesn’t kiss back or say he loves her back. When she kisses Mike- it’s in WILL’S ROOM room AGAIN,  Will’s old teddybear between them, as they kiss in front of Will open closet door) .  in s2ep1 the lyrics are “just a little more time can open closing doors” (as Mike kisses El and it pans over the ‘Will the wise’  drawing & a rainbow-heart-Mike drawing, that blend together). But , In the same ep- when Will says he won’t fall in love the lyrics are “love that is new to you, you open up the door.” Later in the song it even mentions the “wheeler house”. So yes- after “a little more time” (3 months) mike and El kiss once again like ep 1- but it’s  in front of Will’s open door and Mike is not feeling it- and it shows what is going to begin in s4 (byler). That after some time- despite the byler-doors appearing to ‘close’ they open up again after the mileven breakup/mike realizing the depth of his feelings and the fact he can’t ‘fix himself’ and be straight.El saying she loved him- and him not feeling any different after... was probably the catalyst for that realization.

Before this, we saw him project “his feelings” for Will on to El in romantic situations. But, he refused to integrate her into his friend group like his straight friends did with their gfs-unlike lucas with max, or how dustin tried to do so with Susie) . Cause he’s unfairly used El as a beard and wanted to compartmentalizes his friends and romance as much as possible (since faking it all the time not only with El-but with his friends would be exhausting).

Does he care about El- sure in his own flawed way. But, sorry (in my opinion) to act like mike” loves Will and El equally “ is kind of ludicrous . His actions show the opposite. And he’s only known El for 9 months as opposed to knowing Will for 9 years. And he’s known all of his other guy friends and the Byers much longer. What do they have in common?Are they friends ? Sure...  technically but “friends don’t lie”. And mike has done plenty of that to her - so until they sort that out- and are honest to eachother- they can’t really have a strong foundation of friendship in my opinion. It’ll only improve once they start being honest and respect each other’s autonomy (aka stop dating and actually establish a friendship... and  stop lying /spying on eachother). At the moment- Mike stunts El’s character growth and tries isolating her from the outside world, doesn’t respect her autonomy/ability to make decisions, doesn’t trust her in general, lies to her, and treats her like he’s her overly controlling dad. The relationship isn’t balanced or healthy (like byler or Mike and his other peers). In s1 he called her “a weapon”  they could use to save Will (a lesson he appears to have learned from).But Max has to yell at Mike in s3 “she’s not yours! she’s her own person-fully capable of making her own decisions!” And EL says Mike treats her like “a pet” and “garbage”. So yeah...  I don’t get people being ‘offended’ by me pointing out the romantic projection he does- and saying it supposedly ‘destroys’ the ‘beautiful relationship/friendship’ they have. Before I can consider mileven a “beautiful/loving friendship’: Mike needs to stop projecting and seeing El as a perfect beard to ‘fix him’- AND see El as her own person and NOT someone he needs to ‘take care of’ (cause he wrongly infantilizes her) . I think the 2 will eventually become good friends- and Mike will see he was wrong. But they’re not there yet- in my opinion.

[itsonlystrange]

First off, I am not sending hate to any Mileven shipper. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I will only be providing actual facts and evidence, and hopefully will be staying relatively unbiased. As always, this is a PRO-BYLER account. If you do not ship Byler you do not have to read all the way through :).

This will be a 2 part series. The first part will address MILEVEN and how they will not be endgame. The second part will address the likely hood of BYLER being endgame.

So, I’ve been sucked into the Mileven side of Instagram after liking ONE Mileven edit, which is besides the point. Recently I’ve noticed a lot of people say that “They were love at first sight!” Or that “Why would they break up now if they’ve had 3 seasons of development?!” So I’m going to go ahead and supply you all with:

MILEVEN VS BYLER.

PART ONE (MILEVEN)

To start off with the first statement, “They were love at first sight!”

May I remind you how utterly mortified Mike was when he found Eleven. As any 12 year old boy would be. He did not give her any form of “heart eyes”. He looked genuinely scared. He took her home as a courtesy, not because he was “madly in love with her!”. Obviously not everyone would take home a random 12 year old bald girl, but El being taken to the Wheelers was not meant to be seen as a romantic gesture, it was literally just a plot device for the Kids to figure out she had powers.

May I also remind you that Mike wanted to get rid of her. He stated multiple times that she was just a weapon, and a device to find Will. He only let her stay BECAUSE she knew who Will was. He was fully ready to let her go, and send her back to wherever she came from. In the end of it all, he only cared about Will and finding Will. El was simply used as a device to find him. Obviously, now, I do think Mike cares about El. But not in a romantic way, more so a “cute puppy way”. I think he loves her, but that he’s not IN LOVE with her, romantically.

The show has shown constantly how horribly they work together. El’s most confident and prideful moments were when she was AWAY from Mike. Mike’s most loyal and selfless moments was when he was AWAY from El. They do not compliment eachother like that.

Second of all, they have nothing in common. In season one when Mike was explaining his figurines to El, she looked genuinely disinterested. Now some may say that this could be because she didn’t quite understand what she liked back then, which just further proves that she shouldn’t be in a relationship! If she can’t decide if she likes a dinosaur toy or not, how is she supposed to decide if she likes Mike! And we also know that she did have the ability to differentiate between things she liked as she seemed genuinely interested in Nancy’s clothes and photos. The only thing they have in common is shared trauma! Notice how all the other couples share something:

JANCY: love for writing and adventuring

LUMAX: both are comical and enjoy the cinema and the outdoors

DUZIE: science

Along with most of the other couples. But what does Mileven have In common? Can anyone please name ONE good memory between the two when they weren’t in danger. All the “good memories” they have are from when the world was ending.

If you said “Oh, but they make out a lot!” That’s not a ‘good memory’, hell, that’s hardly memorable at at all. Hoppper, Will, and Lucas even admit that for those 6 months in between season 2 and season 3, all they did was make out. That is not love, that is infatuation. Infatuation is a strong desire for someone, mainly romantic, that focuses on the physical aspects of their relationship rather than the emotional. Love is a deep rooted feeling. You do not need to make out all the time to be in love. Love is emotional, of course it can be physical, but you need that strong feeling before any physical aspect of love can be genuine.

Mileven have nothing in common. It’s very clear that Mike is still into D&D and is a nerd. Especially as he might be in the Hellfire Club next season (a D&D club) and also because we’ve seen that D&D is going to be a big aspect of season 4, meaning he’ll most likely be infatuated with it again. It’s obvious that El needs to figure herself out first. She needs to develop into her own human being. She’s still learning. She’s into poppy colors and magazines and makeup (which is great!), but even on a more basic level, they still share nothing in common. Mike is a nerd, we have established that. And notice how in s3 (when he was with El) he felt the least like himself. He acted so out of character. He didn’t use weird Star Wars analogies or gush about the new movie coming out like previous seasons. Now of course one could say that he’s growing up, but we see that he is genuinely still a nerd as when he’s in time of crisis he goes back to those analogies. He goes back to gushing about the new toys he’s getting at Christmas, he goes back to being a nerd. It’s almost as if he’s wearing this mask, and at the end of s3 he forgets to put it on. And then El kisses him, and he realizes that he didn’t enjoy that. So we know for a fact that he is very much still into D&D and those other shenanigans atleast to an extent, considering how happy he was to hear that Will wasnt giving up the party or D&D. Shouldn’t Mike be with someone who is atleast a little similar to him? Regardless of his sexuality, shouldn’t he be with someone that allows him to be his true self? He was incredibly Cocky and arrogant in season 3, almost like he had to be a “man” for El, and in his mind, being a ‘man’ was giving up all of the things he loved, and only kissing El, almost as if she was an object he had to obtain more than an actual human. Which Max agrees with! He treats her more so of a mask he has to wear to cover his true self. Shouldn’t el be with someone who likes the same thing she does? But then again, what does el like?! Exactly! She needs to figure out who she is before she dates anyone. She didn’t even know what shirt she would like to wear!

Now I just find this silly. Development? Really? Okay let me show you their “development”

SEASON ONE: El could only speak 4 or 5 words. They had essentially zero romantic interactions besides the kiss at the end. If El and Mike never kissed (excluding the time they almost kissed in the bathroom), people would most likely only see them as a friendship. Let’s flip the tables a bit. If El was a boy and Mike and El never kissed, this would further prove that they don’t have any romantic tension. Lucas says it the best: “You only like her because she’s the only girl who isn’t grossed out by you!” Which I agree with completely. It’s more of an infatuation. Mike is infatuated with the idea of finally having a girlfriend. Because he knows something is wrong inside him and wants to ‘fix it’ by dating a girl, as if suddenly his sexuality identity issues would disappear. El doesn’t know anything about Mike, and to El, Mike is a hero. To El, Mike is fearless warrior. And Mike knows that isn’t true. But with el, it gave him the chance to start fresh. It gave him the chance to start and become a different person. He puts on his persona of being “strong” and being able to stand up for himself, yet in the end, it’s El who does the saving. The reason he ‘likes’ El so much is because she isn’t disgusted by him. But mike is afraid that if he shows his true self, El wouldn’t like him anymore, and he’d lose that mask. And without a girl to cling to, he’d finally have to confront his sexuality. Which is why we never see Mike being his true self around El. In every single season, he is this false person. He’s wearing a facade, to keep up with these lies. Because he fears that If El knew how nerdy he really was, she’d be uninterested, and he ‘can’t lose her’ because he knows that El is most likely the only girl who will never be grossed out by him. Because all the other girls in this town know who he is. That nerdy guy from the AV club. And he needs a girlfriend. He feels safe that way. Because if he doesn’t have a distraction from his sexuality then he might take an extra step on accident and accidently act on those feelings

Ep 1: making out

Ep2: breaking up

Ep 3-6: fighting

Ep 7: neutral

Ep 8 ½ : neutral

Very end of ep 8: together?

How is that romantic? So from what we know, Mileven got a kiss in season 1, a kiss in season 2, 2 make out sessions, and then they fought. HOW IS THAT A GOOD RELATIONSHIP?

90% of their relationship throughout all 3 seasons has been kissing and fighting. That’s literally it. Not once have we seen them just hanging out and talking. Not once have we seen them go on dates. And as Hopper, Lucas, and Will put: that’s all they do! The Duffer’s purposefully put that line in to show that, it’s really all they did for those 6 months. There was no emotion to that. Just kissing. That’s it. Kissing and fighting is all Mileven has been. And honestly they would have been pretty cute in season 3 if the Duffer’s hadn’t messed it up. But the duffers aren’t stupid! They did this on purpose! Because they wanted us to disagree with Mileven. They wanted us to find it obnoxious. Because they know that they don’t have chemistry! Finn and Millie are brilliant actors and could have definitely pulled that off, meaning the Duffers had to have specifically said to “not act in love”. Mileven is a summer fling, Finn said so himself. They are their true selves when they are apart, and when they are together romantically, they stunt each other’s growth. They’re way better as bestfriends. El needs to figure herself out before she can date anyone.

Thank you for reading part one! Part two will be up soon, and will follow why I believe Byler will be end game!

Heavy inspiration from @kaypeace21 & @hawkinsschoolcounselor

[kaelsims]

An update for my Donovan family legacy!

I’ve made the decision that I want to transform this legacy into a Build a City Challenge. I just feel that I don’t have enough drive to keep going without giving myself something more concrete to work towards. Plus, thanks to @melsie-sims and a few others, I am obsessed with BACCs right now. I’m transforming this save in an attempt not to abandon it, honestly.

What this means for the blog:

Updated post banners, post links, and blog links!

More focus on other families!

More concrete goals!

What this means for the gameplay: 

Storywise, this is happening because after a year of successful living and in fact, flourishing, this venture has proven to be one worth pursuing. It is only now that there is the option to move in new Sims, though they will have to earn CAS points first.

Some things will no longer be allowed.

Interacting with non playable characters (e.g. “townies” which will be the following previously introduced sims: Orlando and Lucas Dark, Nadia and Lillian McCormick, Crystal and Cason Murdock, and Giselle and Eddie Quinn). I will be able to interact with them again after completing 5 gold level parties, at which point I will also include them in the household count, though not as households that can earn achievements.

Using plopsy will no longer be allowed until a Sim (likely Adelaide) completes the Lady of the Knits aspiration.

Children will be allowed to go to school because one of the possible options for that rule is that you have at least five children or teens in the town (they are all toddlers at the moment, but most were born around the same time. As of the time of writing this, the Donovan’s have two toddlers, the Yamakazi’s have… I think two toddlers and a baby, and the Ralston’s have… some little ones…) at least one Sim has three skills up to a level 6 (which has been done by Lucy).

Electricity can continue to be used, as Lucy maxed out the handiness skill at some point.

Services are now locked until we have ten households in the world. As of right now we officially have three. When we unlock the ability to interact with “townies,” I will count it as having seven households (Donovan, Yamakazi, Ralston, Dark, McCormick, Murdock, and Quinn). Daycare/Nannies will not be unlocked until a Sim maxes out the parenting skill.

Starting in the second year of living in Newcrest, Lucy will take on a job as Mayor. This will keep her away from the home now and the bulk of the household responsibilities (raising the kids, keeping the garden, and tending the animals) will fall to Adelaide.

Rotational gameplay.

Starting in the second year of living in Newcrest, the gameplay will rotate between three families (for now). Those families are (of course) Lucy and Alelaide Donovan, Hiro and Yokota Yamakazi, and Vanessa and Rocky Ralston.

NOTE: I chose these three families to be my main “founders” because Rocky is Adelaide’s best friend and Yokota is Lucy’s best friend, not for any other reason. Upon the writing of this I don’t even remember their traits, so I’m kind of going to have to shoehorn them into the roles I’m deciding for them.

My goals that I hope to work on for the rest of the time we are focusing on these households (and not their children):

Complete the Freelance Botanist aspiration. This will probably be completed by Lucy or Adelaide- I’m leaning Adelaide because Lucy will be busy with the new job and maxing the charisma skill so we can move someone else in, but she will have to finish the Lady of the Knits aspiration first. I want to complete the Freelance Botanist aspiration to be able to open up Sulani as our next world.

Unlocking FOUR community lot types (so that next generation we can move to Sulani):

Museum (need 10 masterpiece paintings (completed by Hiro) and 10 excellent sculptures (Lucy)).

Park (level 10 gardening and 3+ families. The families are already achieved (classified as a parent and a child) by the Donovan, Yamakazi, and Ralston families. Lucy is at level 9 gardening, so hopefully she will be able to max this out during the spring of year two).

Pool (have experienced a heatwave, level 10 wellness and fitness. To be completed by Vanessa).

Spa (level 10 wellness, to be completed by Vanessa).

Personal Note: A “Joker” point, acquired by completing an aspiration, can also be used to bypass ONE of these requirements. For example, if Vanessa has completed the wellness skill but not the fitness skill, a JOKER POINT can be used to allow us to open a pool and a spa at the same time.

Complete the Party Animal Aspiration to unlock the ability to make clubs, which will become important as more Sims are made important to gameplay (to be completed by Rocky).

Have someone (anyone) take up a part time job after townies are unlocked.

(IL) Fisherman: Reach level 10 in the fishing skill.

Perhaps Yokota, as she has been fishing with Lucy multiple times.

Have Vanessa take up a job in the athlete career after maxing fitness.

Have Hiro take a position in the painting career after maxing painting.

What to expect to see soon:

(Re)Introduction posts! Everyone already knows about the Donovan’s (though they will receive a re-introduction post as well to iron out the backstory of Lucy and Adelaide), but these posts are where you will learn more about the Yamakazi’s and the Ralston’s!

Rotational Gameplay: The Donovan family will continue into spring, then pass the torch (and journal) over to the Yamakazi family for the summer, to the Ralston’s for the fall, and back to the Donovan’s for winter (probably. This might change based on newcomers to town. Note, I will probably never play the “townie” families, especially since I am marking them as unable to complete any of the goals for me).

Lots of struggling! I have no idea how I’m going to do at this, so wish me luck!

If you made it to the end of this post… well. More power to you, and I really appreciate it! I hope that everyone can enjoy the new turn that this blog is taking, and that it helps me stick with this save file instead of abandoning it… like I do to all the others… Hell, wish me luck on this one too!

| rules. | intro. | tag. | chrono. | family trees. | scoresheet. |

NOTE: rules are new, created by punzelsims and organized by melsie-sims. scoresheet is new, organized by melsie-sims.

[willel]

On this day, I’d like to talk about my feelings on Season 3.

I know I know. You roll your eyes. You’ve seen me talk about it before. But actually you haven’t. Not totally. If anything, you’ve just seen my inquisitional frustration now and then on how they decided to write it.

Make no mistake, I think Stranger Things 3 is the worst of the 3 seasons. Is it the worst tv ever? Nah.... though this is someone who doesn’t really watch tv other than Stranger Things (more of a reader myself). I usually watch youtubers rip tv shows apart instead.

So based on that, do I think Stranger Things 3 is worse that 13 Reasons Why, Riverdale, or uh.... hm.... oh! the last seasons of Game of Thrones? Well, no.

So how do I truly feel? Weirdly enough, I feel the same as I did when I finished watching it the whole time. I felt like... I was waiting for the ball to drop, episode to episode. I can’t pinpoint exactly what I was waiting for, but whatever it was didn’t come.

I didn’t.... FEEL as much as I did the first 2 seasons? And I felt like that was by design. They didn’t bring in the heartfelt stuff until literally the VERY end and by then, it was too late for me to feel invested in all these characters I genuinely like.

I never truly felt like anyone was in danger, especially not the Scoop Troop. Even as Steve was being tortured and had his daylights knocked out... it was just a *shrug* like moment for me.

Even when Hopper supposedly died.... I was kinda feeling like “meh. I doubt it.”

And I’m not trying to say someone HAS to die for me to feel something. No one died in Season 2 (except Bob) and I was still on the edge of my seat while they were interrogating Will or when they started panicking cause the Mind Flayer found their location. I was concerned that maybe El wouldn’t be able to close that humongous gate and Hopper would get eaten by demodogs before they even made it there. I was worried possessed Will would get loose before they managed to exercise the Mind Flayer and maybeeee he’d die or suffer more or something.

So for months, I guess more than a year now, I’ve just been debating my feelings on things. I’ve come to this conclusion.

Even though I didn’t really like the season overall, there were too many things in the season I did like to make me actually hate it.

Will’s arc that lasted about 3 episodes was off to a great start. I was really looking forward to it until it disappeared.

Murray’s friendship with Joyce... I dunno. I actually really loved that. They’re kinda similarly paranoid investigative people who bother Hopper in their own little way. It’s cute, like they’re long lost siblings.

Even if they laid it on a little thick, El and Max’s friendship was much needed and I’m glad that even though El was still trying to copy Max a little too much, Max was also doing her best to remind El now and then to find herself and no one else.

I like that El is now living with the Byers and that they’re moving away. It makes TOTAL sense that Joyce would pack up and leave Hawkins. Too much shit has gone down there, she needed to go for her and her kids sake + El.

Even though I wish the resolution had been different, Jonathan and Nancy clashing due to their backgrounds (being a woman vs being poor) was very interesting to me. I would’ve loved to have more of it. Not more arguing, just more talking about it other than the apology.

I love love love, first of all, Lucas reaching out to Will multiple times after the huge blow up trying to make amends. Some of it is in the background. And that CUTE HUG AT THE END. I love Will and Lucas. <3 Lucas is such a good friend even with a few screw ups there and there.

Jonathan for at least a second taking the big brother role for El and trying to cut that thing out of her leg. Trying to reassure her it’s gonna hurt but it’s gotta be done. So sweet even if gross

And then there’s the things I didn’t like that just... brought down my mood. Here’s a few.

Hopper was just... look. I don’t hate his character. I see this solely as a writing issue, not necessarily a character issue. I feel we could’ve ended up with the exact same plot if we cut out about 50% of Hopper’s snark. I get being overprotective of El and the old “Dad hates the boyfriend jokes”. Whatever. Would’ve been better if Mike ACTUALLY screwed up all by himself and Hopper was just enjoying the moment rather than Hopper being the cause of it.

And I get the whole Hopper really wanting to date Joyce stuff, but... I just can’t see how we go from season 1 and season 2 Hopper who was ready to throw hands with his deputies for implying Joyce was crazy. And the Hopper that really truly completely understood what Joyce was going through (anxiety,depression, and loss). How did that guy turn into someone trying to rush Joyce’s mourning along (after he mourned for his daughter for like, 6 years) and him being the one implying she’s crazy? It’s just weird. I can’t deal. It’s WEIRD.

No Jonathan and Will scenes. They’re finally on the adventure together and there’s still NOTHING. In the mall, Will is damn near having a panic attack hardly able to keep quiet and JONATHAN DOESN’T EVEN GLANCE IN HIS DIRECTION

No Jonathan and Joyce scenes. Mother and son who?

No Nancy and Mike scenes. They didn’t do it for season 2. Surely they won’t forget this time and give the siblings some screen time??? Nope. Bet 75% of the fandom forgot they’re even related.

No Max and Billy scenes. Not a fan of Billy, but Billy is her step brother. Why the hell wouldn’t the writing put a little more focus on that? Surely Max would be more suspicious of Billy acting weird or even nice to her? Surely they’d give her more moments of showing... something over the fact that her step brother is the big bad?

No Will and El scenes. Obviously I’d be annoyed at this. But you’d think the monster radar and the psychic girl would be butting their heads together a bit more to figure out what’s going on? This ties into Will’s evil senses only working 5 minutes too late. How did he sense the Mind Flayer smoke from 10 miles away, but now he can’t sense the huge flesh monster until it’s a couple meters above him?? No logical sense.

Complete erasure of Kali. I didn’t miss the fact that when El was having flashbacks of her mom, they pretty much cut out any mention or thought of Kali. Surely after that heartfelt goodbye, El would at least think of Kali for a moment and get distracted. She decidedly hid the fact that Kali exists from everyone else, wouldn’t it be nice if we saw her character still thinking about that secret from time to time??

And the final point that I feel like typing out tonight, too much focus on El. And I don’t mean it in the way you’re probably thinking. I mean that basically NO ONE is able to save El. EVER. She has to do everything up until the final moment. Mike and the gang isn’t allowed to save El from Billy choking her out. She ends up having to save them. No one can save El from the flesh eating vagina monster. She has to defend herself completely. Jonathan isn’t allowed to get the worm thing out of her leg, she has to pull it out herself. Mike and Max can’t do anything to protect her from Billy again. They all fail and she yet again has to save herself.

Ok, that’s all I wanted to say.

ST3 is like a..... 45 / 55 scale for me, and the 55 is the bad part.

[rochey1010]

HI, ok so this second post is about Eliott posting obscure movies and how they are or will relate to the plot:

1: NIGHT OF THE GHOULS - this movie is basically made by an amateur movie director known as Ed Wood. Now this one did confuse me for a bit as i had multiple threads going in my head. So i'm just gonna list them all. This is setting up the ELU trust/insecurity issues to come. It's also setting up the connection between Eliott and Lola, and it could be setting up Eliott and his suspected uni movie project.

● ELU trust/insecurity issues- the girl in the clip is panicking over something being outside. She's very hysterical and unsettled, and refers to what's outside as ghosts. The guy in the turban is basically telling her she's a fool and that there isn't anything outside. So theorising here, the girl is lucas. The ghosts are the ghosts of the past AKA abandonment issues. They're so deeply rooted that there's a struggle to get through to him. The turban guy is Eliott and he's frustrated that his reasoning isn't getting through. That the fears are unfounded = possible misconstrued nature by Lucas of Eliott and Lola's friendship.

More obscure theory but actually starting to build ground as the show goes on. The girl is Eliott and it's simply that the ghosts of the past have returned (upcoming Benny.Taxi post) and he's freaking out over it.

● this is the BTS, and i think very important for the Lola and Eliott friendship. So Ed Wood the director of the movie formed a friendship with Bella Lugosi (star) but it was through the making of this movie that Wood got Lugosi through the darkest days of his depression and alcoholism. His friendship saved him and put him in a better place. How does this relate? Lola is spiralling at the moment and Maya is distant. She needs a connection and she's one step away from going on another bender. This is where Eliott comes in. He's empathic, sees the bigger picture and has shown concern towards Lola. Their connection is being built on self identification. Basically someone who can relate and understand. Lola needs that right now. Eliott has reached out and they are gonna be friends. He's gonna help her and i suspect the movie will be part of it.

● this one is just about Ed Wood and being an amateur director. I must say a really bad one. I'm thinking it's Eliott BTS and his possible Uni project, and his insecurities over his ability and talents because he was hurt when POLARIS failed to get the funding it needed in the past.

2: MAX AND MARY: A story about a long distance friendship between two lonely outlier souls. There is an age difference but the bond is innocent between them. They converse as penpals and in the end Mary goes to meet Max but he died. this is basically setting up not only the friendship between Eliott and Lola but that Lola will meet Eliott in the next few days. It's also screaming another theory (Benny.Taxi) but i'm gonna talk about that in my last post. The clip is Mary knocking on Max's door. Now my theory is that Lola goes to find Eliott possibly at his job but just misses him, and ends up slipping and going back to the club or more likely she now reaches out to him and meets him.

Edit: next movie Eliott just posted on his insta story.....

3: Unbreakable: This is a 2000's movie directed by M Night Shyamalan. There are 2 important characters. One is a security guard called David (Bruce Wilis) and the other is a comic book store owner calked Elijah (Samuel L Jackson) They come into each others lives and force each other to confront their true selves. They are opposites or polarities of each other. POLARIS i see you there. 👋 but at different places in their lives.

Elijah says "however unreal it may seem, we are connected you and i, we're on the same curve, just on opposite ends"

David is damaged psychologically. He's trying to fix himself and his world. He is numb and just going through the motions of life. He has no passion or drive. Then he finds out about his super powers. That he is super strong like iron, and through this knowledge, and using those abilities, he heals his soul and feels complete.

Elijah is physically damaged. He has brittle 'glass' bones and is in a wheelchair. He learns of David's abilities and he seeks to understand them. Elijah thinks that himself and David are connected and it's through this presence in David's life that they both go on a journey of self discovery and knowing their purpose. Elijah acts as a quirky sort of mentor for David. A guide you would say.

Elijah: "it's alright to be afraid, David because this part won't be like a comic book. Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it"

It's a very ambiguous sort of movie, as both characters are simply grey people. They are very flawed and they have hurt people. There are themes of heroism, self worth, destiny, fear identity and purpose, and really it's about becoming your own hero in life. So how does this relate to the show?

Ok, Eliott is again forshadowing the plot and the issues these characters will face and overcome. Basically i feel it's again the dynamic that Lola and Eliott have. How they will affect each other and the meaning they will bring to each others lives. So Lola is David and she's depressed and numb right now. She's directionless and feels she has no place in her world. Eliott is Elijah and he meets her at a place in life where he ends up helping her to see her true potential. Through this Lola starts to take the reigns of her own life and be her own hero. And her world around her begins to flourish once again e.g. friends, family, love etc.

Elijah says to David at one point "do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you're here"

That screams so much fear in both of these characters, with their own insecurities and trauma's. Eliott could possibly be to me at a crossroads in his creativity. That now that he is trying to bring POLARIS back again, that he is crippled with doubt and insecurity from the first time it failed. His personal insta movie stories seem to me to be him trying to find inspiration to finish POLARIS. And through them it's like he's doubting himself (Elijah's "i almost gave up hope there were so many times i questioned myself")but also through them, the thread is there that he will have help to make POLARIS realised finally.

Ultimately the movie and the show is referencing the realisation of who a person is, what they are capable of, and finding closure from the past and putting your fears and doubts to rest. This to me is both Eliott and Lola's journey.

So basically Eliott's movie is coming. Possibly E6. And POLARIS will be the crux of the life changes in Eliott and Lola. I feel Lola being involved in Eliott's art may even start changing the way she views her own. (damage) and i feel POLARIS will help Lola come to terms with her love for Maya. Thanks to anyone who continues to read my ramblings. 😊

OK my last post is about Benny.taxi and how it's looking like it will be Eliott and not Daphne. And how Eliott's past connects to that.

[despairsceleste]

why i dislike billy hargrove

READ THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Hello. Here’s a more thought-out post--better than my last one. Let’s get started, shall we? First off, the obvious. He verbally abused his little sister Max and her physically, her boyfriend, Lucas--for being black. He also almost (purposefully) hit Mike, Dustin, & Lucas with his car if it weren’t for Max saving them. Let’s talk about the Lucas thing because I haven’t really talked about that one in my last one. So in case you didn’t know,THIS IS RACISM. Funny how none of you even mention this when defending Billy. HE IS RACIST AND RACISM IS NOT OKAY. And supporting Billy clearly shows that you excuse racism. Now onto the second point. “Billy is the only victim of abuse who didn’t have guidance, and so he lashes out at Max. Max had support from her friends, that’s why she doesn’t act like Billy.” I was rewatching St2 this week and it got to a scene where Lucas is comforting Max where they were on the bus (before Dart & the demo-dogs arrived). Max says  after explaining how Billy is and all, “And I do not want to be like him. Ever.” Again, this is currently when she is just starting to become friends with Lucas (starting to let him in), BEFORE she received support & acceptance from him. She was just expressing how she felt to him. That line showed me that she is SO determined not to be like her brother no matter how many times he verbally abuses her. You all say Billy only acts abusive because he doesn’t receive support. But Max also felt alone, and at the time she was rejected by Mike multiple times, and Dustin & Lucas did nothing about it (AGAIN AT THE TIME). but yet she convinced herself that she won’t become like Billy, because she knew how awful that abuse feels. And she doesn’t want to spread it. It could’ve been the same thing with Billy. Even after Neil’s abuse towards him, from that awful experience, he could’ve learned to not be like his father. Support and acceptance has nothing to do with his abusive nature. Because if it did, Max would be a bully (like him) too. And if you still aren’t convinced here’s my last point. Lashing out and abuse are very different things. Lashing out is just randomly getting mad at a person because you’re repressing your feelings of anger at someone else. Lashing out doesn’t include hurting others, or threatening them. It’s just being angry. That’s why it’s called lashing out, not abuse. Abuse includes harming someone/constantly undermining someone by calling them names (which is specifically verbal abuse). Billy verbally abused Max. He was full-on threatening at her, telling her she was shit, telling who she could or couldn’t hang out with (ex: Lucas). And he physically abused Lucas. A CHILD. Just for being black. Lucas looked so helpless, vulnerable, in pain. And who knows what Billy would’ve done if Steve wasn’t there in time. Bless Steve. He doesn’t deserve to be shipped with Billy smh. Okay this is the end of my rant. I’d say not to, but you won’t listen anyway so now feel free to send hate, triggered Billy stans. Just shows how toxic your fandom is anyway. Also check out the post @extrahawkins made about Billy Hargrove. They also bring up excellent points.

[thatonecurlygirl]

Runaway {Pt. III}

Billy Hargrove x Reader

Word Count: about 2k

Warnings: cursing

Catch up on the this and other stories for Billy Hargrove here

Your hands smooth out your skirt as you check yourself out in the mirror one more time. Steve stands in the bathroom doorway with an annoyed look on his face as he watches you primp in the mirror. Steve wanted so badly to protect you from the danger that is Billy Hargrove. Yes, you are one of the “special children” as you so often call yourself and with your newfound powers, you are able to physically handle yourself. That’s not what he is worried about though; He’s worried about what Billy might do to you emotionally. Through many people’s eyes — including Steve — Billy isn’t anything much more than a hot-headed flirt with a giant ass ego. The doorbell rings, eliciting a groan that grumbled from deep down in his chest.

“That’s my cue.” You turn, smiling at an unhappy Steve Harrington as you try to walk past him.

“Hey (y/n), I am going against my better judgment by not stopping you from going out with Billy tonight.” He says as he gently grabs your arm to stop you from walking past him. “I trust you and understand he is supposed to help in some way but I just want you to be careful, okay?”

“Okay, Dad.” You joke and then take up a serious tone. “I’ll be alright Steve. I promise.”

The doorbell rings with two quick chimes and Steve rolls his eyes. With a sigh he lets go of your arm and walks out to the front door, swinging it open and folding his arms across his chest. Billy stands out there on the porch, his smirk quickly turning into a flirty smile as he watches you walk up behind Steve. Billy returns Steve’s hard and angry glare with a wink to tell him that his attempts to intimidate him are in vain.

“Move over Harrington and stop holding the pretty lady hostage,” Billy demands in a smooth voice.

“I’ll be okay,” You smile and whisper to him as you walk past and out the door to stand on the porch with Billy.

“Damn babe, you look hot.” He smiles as he checks you out, eyes trailing from your head to your toes and back up ever-so-slowly.

“Thanks, you look nice too.” You smile and wave to Steve.

“Let’s go, I plan to show you a good time tonight.” He says to you but winks at Steve knowing it’ll make his blood boil.

Steve rolls his eyes as he watched you and Billy walk down the drive and to Billy’s car, a bad feeling playing at his bones. You feel the same eeriness creep across your skin and you just blow it all as the lingering feeling that emanated from Steve when he had ahold of your arm. You don’t give that feeling a second thought due to that slowly diminishing ambiance.

You don’t know Billy that well, so you aren’t as surprised as others would be when he opened the passenger door for you and closing it once you settle in the seat. He uses the few seconds it takes walking to his side of the car to calm his nerves and take a couple deep breaths. For some reason unknown to you he actually has to try to be smooth around you, normally it just comes naturally but around you, he wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot his name.

“You ready Princess?” He asks, looking over at your smiling face.

“Absolutely.”

You sat at a booth across from Billy at some diner called ‘Benny’s’. The place wasn’t busy but was also nowhere near being empty. There were a couple full booths, just enough people to add background noise to the cute and slightly awkward romance drama you called this date. You would occasionally steal glances at Billy between sips of your Cola and his leg occasionally brush against yours.

You made small talk and found that Billy isn’t a big fan of talking about his family, which was okay because neither were you. What family did you really have to talk about? You had no one and nowhere to call home and you didn’t feel like making up lies to tell someone that you probably won’t ever see again after whatever happens. Even after talking and laughing and having a great time with Billy, you couldn’t completely shake the skin crawling feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Unlike the last time, Billy noticed how your eyes glazed over as you zone out for several seconds that feel like a lifetime. His eyebrows furrow in concern and confusion as he reaches out and touches your hand. Right at the moment, you snap back into reality. You see Billy sitting there and his face contorted as if asking if you are okay and you just smile that award-winning smile. In that exact moment right there is when you saw the beauty in his mystery and he saw the mystery in your beauty.

“Sorry, zoned out a little.” You giggle, trying to not look frightened by the vision you just had of the blood everywhere, caked in the crevices of your hands as the midday sky looked as if it were painted black, the occasional flash of lightning turning the sky a red hue.

“Well, how about we get out of here.” He suggests with a smile as he slides out of the booth, reaching his hand out to help you upend you gladly accept it. He wraps his arm around your waist as the two of you walk out of the diner and back toward his car.

“(Y/n)!” Steve’s voice breaks you away from Billy and you see his panicked look under the lights of the dinner.

“You come to crash our date? Got to admit that’s low, even for you Harrington.” Billy nearly growls, feeling a sudden possessiveness over you. He’s never felt this way toward anyone before, not even with the couple real relationships he had back in California.

“Not everything is about you asshole.” Steve snips as he walks closer to the two of you, rips in his shirt and wearing a few scratch marks.

“Steve,” You look at him with wide eyes. “What happened.”

Steve goes to open his mouth but looks at Billy and closes it back. An unearthly snarl shoots through the woods as you hear the sound of branches and twigs cracking. Chest heavy, it feels like you are breathing fire as the only thing you can think about is all the kids, out in the middle of the woods at Hopper’s cabin with him at work.

“What the hell was that?” Billy questions as he walks closer to the woods and around the corner of the diner where a rustling noise draws him.

“Shit! Billy wait!” You call out and follow him, Steve right beside you and all of you stop dead in your tracks as you stand face-to-face with a demo-dog.

“You see that right?” Billy asks, pointing to the dog-like mutant who is standing there in a stance that says he is ready to pounce.

“Here you ugly bastard.” Steve whistles at the monster as he twirls the nail covered bat in his hands.

The beast lunges and Steve swings like he is hitting a home run and it falls to the ground but quickly recovers, bouncing back up and tackling Steve to the ground, his bat falling from his hands. Your breath hitches in your throat as time seems to slow but not stop for everything but you and the guys. Billy quickly grabs the bat and knocks the creature with it, causing it to fall off of Steve and he continues to smash the bat into the creature unknown to him until the limp body is void of any remaining life.

“What the hell is going on?” Billy turns and points to the dead demo-dog. “Do you know what that thing is, Harrington?”

Steve looks at Billy and then at you and you go to open your mouth to explain the crazy story of experiments and superpowers and other dimensions with monsters but Steve stops you with a shake of his head. He hasn’t been shy about voicing his reservations on letting Billy in on the whole monsters and multiple dimensions things and although he pretty much saved his life, he still doesn’t think its a good idea.

“If I’m going to be involved in whatever screwed up shit this is, I need to know exactly what the hell this is!” He demands.

“We will, I promise but first we need to find the kids.” You say, too frightened to hide the look of fear on your face.

You have no idea why you doubted the kids and their ability to hold their own. Jane’s powers seemed to increase day by day and between her and the other kids’ growing skills to combat monsters, they were honestly better at this whole thing than anyone would expect. When the tree of you pulled up in two separate vehicles you say the lumps of two dead demo-dog bodies laying out on the lawn and the kids huddled inside.  When the three of you walked in, you saw the way Billy’s eyes narrowed at Max and figured that was the best time to explain what was going on.

“Whoa whoa whoa. Okay, so you are telling me that monsters and other dimensions and crazy experiments on kids with powers are real and happened right here in this crazy boring shit hole of a city?” Billy scoffs in disbelief.

“After what you saw, do you have any other way to explain it?” Mike pipes up with a sarcastic attitude.

“Hell yeah, I’m dreaming or drunk as hell.” Billy laughs.

“I wish,” You mumble under your breath.

“What do we do now?” Lucas asks, looking between you and Steve.

“Call Hopper.” You sigh and turn around, stepping outside and onto the porch.

You close your eyes, the cool breeze tickling the tops of your arms as you try to survey the ambiance or the area around you. You feel nothing but stillness, emptiness, like a terrifying calm before the storm. Then all at once, there is a sudden wave on emotion as you feel a warm, calloused hand brush against your arm. Opening your eyes you look straight into Billy’s blue ones.

“What do you feel?” He asks, wanting to know if you can really do what you say you can.

“Scared.” You tell him, unsure if it’s your feelings, his, or the both of yours combined.

Reaching out, he grabs you and does something he hasn’t done in years, something that feels so foreign to him and at the same time so relaxing. He hugs you, an affectionate and comforting hug. He’s ready to play it off and say it’s for you if caught by anyone else, but honestly, he needs it just as much as you do.

“Thanks,” You sigh into his warm, bare chest as you take in his scent of musk and cigarette smoke. “I know this is all overwhelming and crazy. I’m so sorry for pulling you into this.” you groan into his chest.

“Hey,” He chuckles as he slowly runs his fingers through your hair. “I couldn’t leave a pretty girl like you to be a part of this shit without a little extra help. Plus, if it weren’t for me, you and Harrington would be monster food.” He says, gaining a little more of his Billy confidence and ego as his hands slowly travel farther and farther down your back and you step back just before they cup your ass.

“You and Max should probably head home. It’s late and with Jane and I is probably the most dangerous place to be right now.” You sit on the rocking chair, eyes following Billy as he sits on the one next to you.

“That’s exactly why I’m staying.” 

[strangest-things-lover]

Stop (Billy Hargrove x Reader)

A/n: Sup peeps! I’m literally crying rn bc I made a fanfic and accidentally pressed delete and I worked on it for more than two hours! It’s okay tho bc I wrote another one! Hope y'all enjoy it! Btw REQUEST ARE OPEN!

Summary: You and Billy have been dating for quite a long time now and he’s been avoiding you. You see him wandering the halls and took advantage. What seemed to start good, turned out bad.

You were waiting for Max at her locker for god knows how long. It was class time so there wasn’t anyone around. You heard footsteps coming from your right and turned to see Max. She looked confused but still kept walking.

“What brings you here?” She asked as she opened her locker.

“I need to see your brother right now! Do you know where he is?” You asked curiously, making Max laugh. She put her hand on your shoulder and spoke.

“You need to calm down! He’s probably walking around like an idiot.” You nodded your head.

“I’ll pay you back I swear!” You said before running off. You ran to your locker and decided to put all your things into it. You slammed the door and saw someone from the corner of your eyes. Billy. You made eye contact with him, before slowly walking to him.

“Hey sexy!” He said grabbing onto your hips, only to be rejected when you pulled away. You grabbed his arm and led him into the girls washroom.

“I need to talk to you.” You spoke softly. He smiled and moved forward, pushing you against one of the walls.

“Why don’t we keep that for later huh?” He snaked his hands to your butt and groped it harshly, pulling you closer to him. You wanted to get out of his grip but he was too strong.

“Billy, seriously! Stop!” He looked at you, before bringing his lips against your neck.

“You look hot today baby! I can’t help myself.” He kissed your neck to your jaw, he moved to your lips, but you turned your head. He pulled his body away from you and waited.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked, sounding annoyed.

“What’s wrong with me? WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?” You lost your patience, your soft gentle voice now a harsh growl. He looked a little taken back and he didn’t like the fact you’re raising your voice.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” He asked in a low, intimidating voice. He slowly moved closer to you, blocking you between him and the stall door. 

“You, asshole.” He raised his hands to slap you, but stopped midway when he heard a teacher. He looked at you, covering your face in fear.

“This isn’t over.” He said before moving away towards the door. As soon as you heard the door close, you slid down and hugged yourself. What have you gotten yourself into? After about half an hour, you saw Max walk in.

“Y/N!”She yelled before running to your side. You looked at her with puffy eyes and she didn’t know what to do other than hugging you.

“That monster! Wait till I tell dad.” You held her wrist tightly, signalling her not too. You brought your hands to your face and wiped the tears away. You stood up and faced Max.

“I-I need to b-break up with him.” Even though you were stuttering, Max knew you meant it. She looked scared, for you, for what’s going to happen.

“You can’t do that, not with him. Make him break up with you Y/N.” She was panicking for some reason and you were confused.

“Why?” You asked, barely getting the question to leave your lips.

“Let’s just say that his ex moved to another school cause of him…” You needed to know more but you didn’t have the energy too. You hugged her tightly since she would be the only one who would understand.

“I love you so much Maxine! Thanks for the help!” You pulled away and she smiled.

“You too! Just, please try to avoid him for a while.” You nodded your head. She was about to leave but you pulled her back.

“Wait, are you guys going to hunt down the demogorgons? Cause I’ll come with you.” Her face lit up with excitement which answered your question.

“Meet us at Will’s house! I’ll see you then and hope you feel better!” She gave you one last hug before she left. You looked at yourself in the mirror and took a deep breath.

7 o'clock at the Byer’s House

You stepped out of your car and moved towards the door. You stood at the front, debating if you should go or turn back. Before you can choose, Steve opened the door and smiled!

“Y/n! Come in!” It was funny because now that Mrs.Byers is gone, Steve has been acting like a mom. You laughed and entered the house to see everyone’s face in shock. You turned behind you to see nothing.

“Hello?” You questioned and they all looked at each other. They all shook their heads and waved at you. You walked towards Lucas, plopping down beside him.

“What are you dipshits up to?” You asked as you turned to face “the squad”.

“We’re actually trying to plan how we are suppose to attack or lure the demogorgans into the centre. We have to go to the farm and go down the hole, light it on fire then come back up.” Steve and you looked at each other in confusion.

“And who’s driving?” Steve asked only for all of them to point at him. He rolled his eyes and grabbed the towel he had over his shoulders.

“This is not happening! Do you understand that? I never agreed to this! I promised to keep you guys safe and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. If you go out there by yourself, don’t expect me or Y/n to save your ass’.” They looked at you and you nodded your head. The phone started ringing and no one bothered to notice because they were too busy fighting. You got up and went to answer the phone.

“Hello?” You asked to hear a female voice on the other side. You looked down at the number and it was coming from your house.

“Yeah! Y/n! Honey! A handsome young man came looking for you and his sister Ma-”

“WHAT?” You yelled through the phone and everyone around you turned their attention to you. Your body was heating up from what your mom just told you.

“It’s not a big deal, Y/n! I told him you both should be at the Byer’s house and he’s probably on his way. Make sure to not scare him!”

“DID YOU GIVE ALL OF OUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS TOO?” You asked as anger was boiling through your entire body.

“Y/n im so-”

“SAVE IT!” You yelled and slammed the receiver down, cutting her off. You looked towards the others in worry, especially Max.

“Max, you need to come with me right now.” Max didn’t even ask you anything and followed you. Steve moved in between you and the door, curious to know what’s so serious.

“What happened?” He focused mainly on you, analyzing the way your body was stiff and trembling.

“B-billly is c-coming.” You said through your stutters. Max gasped and moved away from the door.

“NO! HE CAN’T FIND ME! DO SOMETHING!” She yelled as she ran towards Lucas, who wrapped his arms around her. 

“Why are you guys scared of that guy?” Your head shot back to Steve and he moved back a bit.

“You don’t understand. He’s one son of a bitch Steve, you even know that. He’ll hurt Max and kill me!” Steve pushed you back, far away from the door. You started pacing around the living room. Sitting on the couch, getting up, pacing for a bit, and doing it all over again.

“Steve. I need to get her home before he com-”

You were cut off when you heard an engine roaring from outside.  “Billy.” Both you and Max said in unison.

“Okay, stay here with them Y/n! If he gets in, you need to defend them.” He said before opening the door. As soon as the door closed, all of you ran to the couch that was below the window and looked out. You being the tallest, had to get up and look from the top. You noticed how Billy was constantly looking at the window then turned to look at the kids. You looked again and noticed Steve swing his head back to the window.

(Ignore the subtitles)

“SHIT! Did he see us?” Dustin asked as he slid down the couch like the others. You went near the door and slightly opened it to see Steve on the ground and Billy walking towards the door.

“NO!” You immediately pushed your body weight against the door, but Billy was pushing on it real hard. You looked at the ceiling to see cracks starting to appear. You knew you had to let go before the entire door breaks.

“GO AWAY BILLY! MAX IS NOT HERE!” You shouted as loud as you can and heard a chuckle.

“PRINCESS! YOUR HERE TOO? WELL ISN’T THIS A LUCKY DAY!” You regretted even speaking. He shoved the door a little harder and you landed right on your ass. He slammed the door open and looked down at you.

“Well, well, well, who do we have here? Is that Lucas Sinclair?” He moved dangerously close to Max and Lucas and eyed them. You pushed yourself up and shoved yourself in between Billy and the kids.

“The doors behind you. Leave!” He laughed before wrapping his hands around your throat. You can hear the kids yelling and trying to pull him back but he was determined to get what he wants. You tried to pry his hands away, but it only got tighter.

“Watch yourself, Y/l/n! You might be signing up to see the bitchy side of me.” His face was probably a few centimetres away from yours. You snickered before saying,

“Aren’t I already?” His face slowly started turning red and before you can process, he threw you to the ground. You landed on your back and laid there for a few seconds, trying not to pass out. You could tell he was moving forward and just as he bent down, Steve opened the door, standing above you. You smiled and looked back at Billy before punching his face, nice and hard. He grunted as he fell back and Steve took the chance to bend down and punch him multiple times. You pulled Steve up and told him to get out of the house with the kids.

“Steve! Take them and start your plan.” Steve was hesitating, but he knew you would be fine. You straddled Billy’s hips and held him down, giving the others a chance to escape. Steve gave you one last glance.

“Are you sure?” You huffed.

“I’m positive Steve! Now get the fuck out!” He closed the door and you heard the car come to life and drive off. Billy took this chance to push you off of him and picked you up. He brought you to the couch and dropped you, setting himself on top of you.

“Get off of me!” You squirmed beneath him as he laughed evilly. He pulled your hands above your head and held it there.

“Give me one good reason to.” He seemed serious. You teared up and almost began to cry.

“You don’t love me.” The words left your lips as it made its way through his mind. As it hit him, he let go of your hands and stood up.

“What are you talking about? Of course I love you!” You stood up, maintaining the same eye level.

“Lies.” You shoved past him to the door, ready to leave this place but he pulled you back.

“You’re not leaving this place without explaining yourself!” He backed you up against the wall like he did earlier, but there was no sexual tension, only anger and sadness.

“Y-You haven’t been talking to me! You don’t even bother to checkup on me! You have been ignoring my texts. You have been partying with our school sluts when you told me you’re tired!” You didn’t even take a breath in between and just looked at Billy for an answer.

“I don’t understand so clarify this, you’re the one who took an interest for me first right?” You waited for an answer but he just looked at you blankly, lost.

“ANSWER ME BILLY!” He nodded his head and you can tell, he knew this was going somewhere bad and because it was all his fault.

“You’re the one who asked me out, am I right?” He nodded his head and looked down at his hands, looking at the promise rings you swapped with each other.

“You’re the one who gave me the promise ring and said we should always keep each other as a first priority!” He looked at you in shame, hating himself. You both didn’t even notice the fact that Billy, is now backed up against the wall.

“I didn’t know you felt that way… I’m sorry.” For the first time, you actually heard something from Billy that he meant. You sarcastically laughed.

“Wow! That’s the first thing you’ve actually meant!” He looked at you with tears in his eyes.

“I wasn’t doing anything with those girls anyway, even ask Max! I called them cows! I promise I’ll make it better.” You raised your left hand in between both of your faces and slowly took the ring off. You shoved the ring to his chest and gave a weak smile.

“You already broke it.” With that said, you kissed his cheek one last time and moved towards the door. You saw a single tear run down his cheek and you wanted to hug him, hold him, but both of you knew it’s not possible.