#hellfire as an allegory for queerness

[aemiron-main]

I’m gonna talk abt this at length in my analysis but the hellfire club is Such an allegory for queerness. like in addition for all of the other mountains of evidence, does the ga think that they writers chose a word starting with ‘F’ (freak), and set it up as an offensive term that gets ‘reclaimed’/used as a self-descriptor by some but that we still see other people seem to be hurt by just for fun? do they think they just did that randomly bc they were in a silly goofy mood?? like does it not ring any bells for any other F word that applies to queerness and is a parallel to freak in the context of the hellfire club metaphor?? no bells at all?? cmon GA

[lexcellence]

When I heard Gerry Duggan get asked on Cerebro, white boy to white boy, about the unfortunate optics of announcing and then immediately murdering the least white team of X-Men in years, I knew we'd be in for some shit. Man, did he deliver - after some evasive waffling about how ORCHIS is meant to be fascist, and how the story's point is to put the collective back of mutantkind even more against the wall than it was any of the last six times something like this has happened.

And, honestly? That's fair! This year's Hellfire Gala is ultimately the first part of a larger story, and history shows it's not going to last forever — hell, does anyone remember what the status quo was immediately before HoXPoX? At least this time most of the characters have implicitly just been sucked into Mother Righteous's magical Poké Ball, rather than outright killed; if anything, that's an improvement. I was fully content to just think "hey, not for me," and get back to ignoring everything beyond Immortal and Sabertooth, secure in the knowledge that certain topics are bound to be handled poorly when almost everyone in the room is white, when Duggan said three words that stopped me in my tracks:

"Keep the faith."

See, that struck me, because for a lot of us, this entire era of comics has been about nothing but faith. I've been reading X-Men, and engaging with fans since I was eight, and I've never seen the kind of collective buy-in from other marginalized readers that I have with Krakoa. X-Twitter (or, I suppose, X-X) has been Blacker, queerer, more disabled, less homogeneous than the fandom has ever been, all of us buying in to the implicit promise that this time things would be different. Sure, the line was headed by a presumably straight white guy, but there were other voices in the room for a change, and it really felt like they were going to be listened to. We thought we'd moved past clunky metaphor, past queerbaitimg and awkward racial gaffes. Storm and Kwannon were getting to do stuff, Arakko was full of amazing characters of color, Cyclops and Wolverine were probably fucking, we were hooked, and we turned out.

It's hard to overemphasize just how wild this was to see in real time. X-Men has always been allegory, sure, but it's traditionally allegory by and for the majority. For years, the readers who might really feel that resonance, those of us who have been hated and feared for the unforgivable crime of being who we are, we were afterthoughts, tolerated at best. We got scraps, "representation" from creators who seemed to be offended by the implication that we would ever want something other than being fetishized tokens. We were, as Hickman so succinctly put it, told that we were less when we knew we were more. And then, out of nowhere, Krakoa made us inescapable.

The two biggest X-Men podcasts, X-Plain the X-Men and Cerebro, are hosted by queer people. X of Words has been rocking the Black, queer experience like no one's business, Mutant Watch has been a joy to listen to and to be on. Not just podcasts, either, in everything from criticism to fanart to cosplay, voices have been elevated that were previously silent. I mean, hell, I've gotten paid to talk about comics, that shit never would have happened four years ago.

All of that was based on faith.

Faith that we were being celebrated, for once, instead of just used. Faith that for whatever growing pains there might be, things were going to be better.

And let's not fuck around here, there were growing pains. In the first year alone we dealt with everything from blatant whitewashing, to queerbaiting — any Sunspot fan can go into detail there, assuming you can get one of us to stop crying for long enough. While that was going on, we watched Bryan Edward Hill (the only non-white writer in that initial wave) put out a book that was, let's face it, at worst aggressively mid, only to be excoriated by certain portions of the fandom, and dropped by the office, while significantly worse books managed to hold fast — er, hold on. Not to say that Fallen Angels was without sin, mind you, the book was packed with enough orientalism to make Chris Claremont blush. But, at the same time, Wolverine's first year ended with him doing what he does best: trying so hard to be Japanese that I had to check to make sure he wasn't Marvel's editor in chief.

Through all of that, we kept the faith.

Things didn't really get much better, of course. Arakko was a fascinating concept, and felt like it damn near doubled Marvel's characters of color. And yeah, the ending of X-Factor was one of the most poorly handled racist messes I've seen this side of… well, any given day on Twitter. Sure, the whitewashing has never stopped, to the point where everything from X-Corp to this week's Hellfire Gala has had to be hastily edited between previews and release. Maybe we keep dealing with stuff like butchered AAVE, even more queerbaiting, Kate Pryde's funeral, the genocide of almost all of those Arraki characters, and whatever the hell was going on with Lost in Way of X. Maybe there's a very real argument to be made that there's something insidious about three straight years of voting to determine if characters like Monet (who, by the by, has been retooled from "basically Superman" to "Black woman with anger powers") deserve the honor of being written by a white man who's stayed writing with his foot in his mouth. I mean, hey! All my white friends in the scene say he's nice, just like Williams, or Howard, or any number of other crusty crackers who are still proud of tripping over the bar Claremont left on the floor in the 80's!

And dammit, we kept the faith!

Even before the issue dropped, the Fall of X has had a lot of us wary. After all, all of the promotion leading up to it has been white guys saying the minority allegory has had it too good for too long, which, whatever, press copy. We all know they've gotta sell books — they, in this case, being the almost exclusively white, almost exclusively male creative teams attached to all of the books in the line. Sure, as Duggan said, the 616 has a fascism problem, but it’s hard not to see this as a deliberate step back from the almost double digit number of non-white creators these past few years — almost as if Marvel has realized they can make space for a fourth ongoing by their favorite white boy if they just throw out a Voices special every couple of months as a containment zone for the darkies. And, hey, considering how good ol’ C.B. got his foot in the door, I can’t even fake surprise. At this point, it’s a minor miracle any time a person of color is tapped for anything that’s expected to last beyond one issue.

In this issue, as a reward for keeping the faith, we got to see something astounding, something that'd bring a tear to the eye of even the most cynical reader — a team that was only half white. My god. And sure, their brutal murder in favor of a team with Kate "Hard-Arrr" Pryde and the Kingpin(????) was only a pit-stop between the resurrection of the suddenly ashy Ms. Marvel and Lourdes Chantel being killed off for the sake of a white woman's angst yet afuckinggain, but ain't that the dream that Malcolm Ten or whoever died for?

The Krakoan era, ultimately, has been the same as every other. Empty promises by white men who show us time and again that there was never any point in expecting anything better. Any meaning we've found, everything of worth, has been what we've made for ourselves.

We've spent years keeping the faith, Gerry, while you and yours have continued to let us down. What the hell do we have to show for it?

[vidavalor]

I'm obsessed with your Crepes post and Ineffable Husbands Speak but I'm stuck on when Azi says "angel, demon, possibly explode." Wouldn't that say they hadn't tried it? I feel like there's a lot happening with the language in this scene and I'm not seeing it. Could you write about that? I will bring you fucking boxes of caramels if you can make that scene make sense haha.

Hi there! I can try. :) Thanks for reading the post & for the ask. I made chocolate chip cookies today so please help yourself.

You know how we've been chatting here about how Crowley & Aziraphale use words like "wily", "thwart" and "smitten" that have multiple, sometimes contradictory, meanings? A violent or religious one but also a romantic or sexual one? "Explode" is another one of those words and it changes the meaning of the Discorporated!Aziraphale scene quite a bit from what it might seem to be at first.

One of the definitions of "explode" is to disprove ideas that were previously thought to be true or potentially true. To "explode a theory" is to uncover new information that allows you to render a theory untrue.

"Explode" is also an example of using destructive language as sexual metaphor, which they do pretty frequently, and we'll get into when I finish the meta one of you requested that I write on the "seeds of destruction" scene in S1.

I'll get into it in more detail in the future but, imo, the Discorporated!Aziraphale scene is actually suggesting that Crowley and Aziraphale once thought they might harm one another if they were to have any sex that brought them into too much direct contact with each other's, uh, holy water and hellfire, but that they eventually exploded that theory and have been, uh, exploding each other more expansively for some time as a result.

Queer history allegory incoming:

Steve walks merrily down the street/with the brim pulled way down low/ain't no sound but the sound of his feet/machine gun's ready to go/are you ready?/hey/are you ready for this?/are you hangin' on the edge of your seat?/out of the doorway/the bullets rip/repeat it to the sound of the beat...

[gaywatch]

Have you seen/heard “Lilith” the collab OST between Halsey and Suga that they made for the game “Diablo” ?? 👀

Someone on twitter said “something about two queers serving religious destruction and hellfire allegory on pride month” and attached a clip from the music video and I couldn’t agree more honestly 😭

I had NO IDEA about this hsajkldfjskflkjfl

I was not expecting a total overhaul of the production like that????? I loved it so much that was some dark synth perfection

And Suga came in SO smooth? Was not expecting him to come in with vocals and then bam, but then his rap flowed right in????? What the FUCK, I love this even more than his Interlude (and his Interlude has always been top notch)

Happy demonic pride to US, holy SHIT

[pinkeoni]

Do you have a time-line in mind for how Will possibly becoming a scapegoat or blamed for all things would go? From someone recognizing him to how it could snow ball into something simular with Hellfire? I imagine with 3/4 of the OG party already toeing that line and Ed*ie "missing" some towns people are going to turn their ire towards the remaining members. Will could possibly be pinned with guilt by association too. What are your thoughts?

Oooohh okay I’m glad you asked.

I think initially it would start small. Maybe during the timeskip there would be rumors about Will being into something nefarious, not too different from the usual he would have to endure.

But post-timeskip as the action ramps up, especially as it relates to Will’s connection to Henry, what starts as gossip begins to look like it may have a lot more truth to it. The town suspects that Satanists are involved, and this kid surrounded by strangeness seems to have a connection to what people think is the devil?? I can imagine some supernatural strangeness happening to make people think this— maybe Will begins to hallucinate Henry or begins to hear his voice and people take notice of his strange behavior.

When there’s a Will power reveal this is when things REALLY start to get bad because it shifts from gossip to genuine speculation to outright witch hunting, and Will could likely have the entire town actually out to get him.

Lately I’ve been making a few posts regarding the AIDS allegory in the show, and this would definitely tie into that. Will is, quite literally, seen as the predatory gay man who is spreading disease and causing death. Now, this actually goes hand in hand with the canonization of Byler. Imagine Mike and Will becoming romantically involved, perhaps around midseason, and how this would create even more of a conflict for them getting together than there already is. After the mutual feelings are revealed and the confession is had, the conflict then just becomes how society is going to see them together, which is now just dramatized to the nth degree.

Imagine Will telling Mike that they shouldn't be together because everyone will think that Mike is in on it with him. Mike has been relatively proactive about hiding his queerness, but it's actively falling apart. Meanwhile, Will's queerness has always been perceived by others. I could imagine Will saying something along the lines of, "If they see us together, they will think that you are in on it with me. If they see us together they will kill you." And he's talking about his involvement with the Upside Down, but it serves as a double meaning for their queerness. Will is basically telling Mike, maybe not in these exact words, to continue to hide his queerness and let Will take the fall for both of them.

Of course, it all works out happily in the end. Will won't be the one to destroy the world, he is going to save it. Town perspective will likely shift, although I don't know if they will overwhelmingly love Will so much as just feel a little embarrassed that they placed all the blame onto him. I also don't think that Will saving the day would mean that the town changes it's tune about gay people either 😂 however I do think that both Will and Mike learn by the end that they deserve to live a happy long life together, so they get together even if they can't have the most public relationship. Cue Byler leaving Hawkins together in the epilogue.

[castlebyersafterdark]

hi, what percentage of S5 do you think will be dedicated to byler and unveiling the twist that is byler? I feel like so many people on here are expecting Heartstopper but make it 80s, when that’s never been how the show has handled any of its ships. even during the most overtly romantic season (S3), the larger Plot always took precedence. I do think the Duffers have been saving this for the end for a reason and they have to show us some intimacy beyond just a chaste kiss. But like… Stranger Things is a supernatural show playing to a wide audience. It’s not gonna be a byler fanfic

Very good points, which is definitely a healthy thing to keep in mind when hyper fixating on any one portion of a piece of media. Your expectations may not = reality.

I think something to keep in mind is that the Byler story isn't just the romance/shipping aspect. It's entwined into entire plot. So while, yes it isn't a quaint little teen romance show like Heartstopper, the arc for Mike and the arc for Will, even in regards to their relationship and sexualities, is purposeful to everything else.

Will's story will combine his coming of age and dealing with his sexuality, ties to the supernatural, maybe some internalized isolation from his struggle, leaving him vulnerable to vecna, etc etc. Mike as a fight between authenticity and conformity, confronting his own sexuality struggles with the allegory of being a target of the town for associated with Hellfire, simultaneously being the allusion that he'd also be a target for who he really is. Will is zombie boy, he's maybe got powers, he's the town pariah, all these awful things seem to revolve around the boy who came back from the dead - he's different, he's the town queer, he's a huge target - all of it. It's all entwined.

So, I don't think it's gonna be blatant, constant long form conversations and self reflection and relationship drama between Mike and Will. I think in dealing with the bigger plot pieces, everything will align in different ways through the same plot points. Multipurpose story-telling.

This is why I like spending so much time in certain focused parts of the fandom. It's filling the gaps and giving extra that we'd never get in the source material. Which is why it's so fun to play, because we're creating transformative works and doing what interests us with the story presented. I don't neeeeed to see everything cookie cutter and not be what the show is to be happy. The show is what it is and I think it'll do a good job, but we can't expect it to be as hyper focused as our biased spaces.

[morose-magnetrix]

Excalibur #26 by Tini Howard (writer), Marcus To (artist), and Erick Arciniega (colorist)

Emma Frost: “Betsy, stop this. We need your assistance here, in the real world.”

Betsy: “Don’t. [...] Don’t reduce this to that. As if it’s some fantasy.” 

Tini Howard and Marcus To’s run on Excalibur comes to its conclusion in its 26th issue. This series has definitely had its ups and downs, but in the post X of Swords era it’s really come into its own. Knights of X has been confirmed to be the continuation of Tini’s run, which definitely explains why this very much feels like the season one finale of a show that’s finally found its footing, promising more to come. 

Things I loved about this issue:

1. It’s so queer! We’re blessed with a Rictor/Shatterstar kiss and moment. We also finally get on panel confirmation of the Betsy/Rachel romance that has been brewing in small hints throughout the run, beginning with Betsy giving Rachel Amazing Baby and continuing with their dance at the Hellfire Gala, as Rachel gives Betsy a kiss on the cheek and talks about how Betsy isn’t just needed, she’s wanted. I know that it isn’t a full blown on the mouth kiss, but I get the sense Howard and To gave us as much as they were allowed to, so I still adored it. 

2. Saturnyne’s schemes are revealed. One theme that I have adored in this series is how women deal with misogyny - Roma was trapped under her father’s thumb, Saturnyne is constantly belittled as just a witch, Betsy is discriminated against for being a female Captain Britain. It was really satisfying to see that Saturnyne had worked with Roma to overthrow Merlyn - that Roma was a part of those schemes. It really felt in line with the huge amount of agency that’s been giving to these female characters who are constantly doubted or overlooked by the men around them. 

3. Maggie having the emotional intelligence of a child was really sweet - she was scared for her mom! It’s really easy with hyper intelligent children to make them robotic, but I loved that she was allowed to still be a kid AND a genius. 

4. The idea that Arthur is a composite of all the legends and stories about him is fascinating. It reminds me a lot as to what happens to those who die in Otherworld and are then resurrected - how they become a mixture of all their selves, scrambled up. It explains a lot about Arthur’s paranoid psychology and the idea that a lot of it is him creating a self fulfilling prophecy about Mordred was interesting. I think it similarly explains Merlyn’s instabilities and Roma’s stability - there are countless of legends about Merlyn, whereas unless I’m mistaken Roma is a unique character to the Marvel Universe. 

5. The entire discussion of Otherworld as just some fantasy, that it’s a way for Betsy to escape reality - I think that really speaks to a lot of her character beats. When Betsy was in Kwannon’s body, she went ALL IN on the ninja stuff. Now that she’s Captain Britain, she’s gone all in on the medieval fantasy stuff. I think she has this tendency to just adopt whatever her current role is and make it her identity - she obsesses over things and loses herself in them. Obviously Otherworld is important to deal with, it’s not like she’s lost in a video game, it really is real, but I think it was a great character beat. 

6. She’s fighting for a world that hates and fears her. A common critique of the Krakoan era is that the mutants aren’t doing the hated and feared thing anymore - and I think Otherworld is the natural answer to that. Otherworld is where we get stories about how people are scared of the witchbreed, even as Excalibur does all they can to protect them. I also think Otherworld allows for stories that examines an aspect that isn’t possible with Krakoa - what happens when a minority group creates a nation state and seizes land that was previously inhabited. Krakoa has annexed Avalon (and now lost it), which allows for a lot of unique story telling perspectives, especially with the Israel allegory of Krakoa. 

7. Gambit fretting over his cats after the lighthouse is destroyed. I love him as a cat dad. 

8. Saturnyne continuing to thirst for Brian Braddock. 

9. The title change to Knights of X is explained, as Britain is taking the name ‘Excalibur’ back. 

Things I’d love to see expanded on:

1. I wish we had gotten more time of Saturnyne and Betsy in the Lesbian Sea of Secrets. Maybe we’ll get some fun flashbacks to that one day. 

2. Where’s Mordred? I’d love to see him show up. He’s been such a huge part of the plot with Arthur but has yet to make an appearance. 

3. I actually low key would love to see Saturnyne kicking it on Krakoa now? I feel like her and Selene could get together and throw an AMAZING theme party. Maybe slutty tarot? Anyone? Just me?

Verdict: Eight out of ten knights

[aemiron-main]

the st soundtrack choices and the way that they’re edited and incorporated are fucking genius seriously you guys it ties into the narrative and queerness and other themes so well and also if you enjoy my gay mike analysis you’re def gonna want to read this imo

if i ever start talking about the ST song choices and their relationship to songs/song choices regarding songs that are seemingly pro-protest and anti-conformity but are actually still safe enough to still enforce the norm and have  been ACTIVELY USED by conservative politicians to give the appearance of counterculture and rebellion while still upholding and enforcing the norm while giving their supporters the illusion of rebellion and freedom, and how oppressors like to frame themselves as the underdogs and how not only do oppressors/rightwingers want to squash counterculture music and expression but also will actively steal and twist it to make it reinforce the norm and fit their agenda, i Will Not Stop talking about it, like once that can of worms is opened it is uncloseable sorry. 

yes i am staring DIRECTLY at “raise a little hell” being used for steve’s party which is tied to conformity and seems like rebellion but actually isn’t rebellion (like how jonathan talks about how nancy is just a suburban girl who thinks she’s rebelling but is actually just doing the same thing as other suburban girls)  yes i am staring DIRECTLY at ‘rock you like a hurricane’ and ‘shout at the devil’ and ‘the four horsemen’ and billy, somebody who sees himself as counterculture and rock and roll but in reality is using rock and roll to reinforce dated, bigoted beliefs and promote hatred. and how all of those songs, despite all being rock songs, occupy different subcultures and tie into politics and culture in very different ways.  like they didn’t do this accidentally, this pattern of songs is constant and it’s backed up by scenes like what i mentioned with steve and jonathan and nancy and conformity. and thats why i have a LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE SONG CHOICES IN S4 RELATIVE TO S4′S THEMES OF ANTI CONFORMITY AND HOW WE HAVE TO LOOK PAST THE SURFACE AND JUST ARGHHHHH  like i remember seeing a genius quote about it in an article awhile back (not abt st specifically but about the phenomena of how conservatives and those who want to maintain the norm use rock and roll and previously counter-culture efforts in order to twist it and enforce the norm): 

“rock n roll isn’t dead, rock n roll is alive and wants tax cuts for the rich” it’s not just limited to rock and roll though, pop songs that are deemed to be nostalgic and counterculture are used in that way too (even if they actually ARE counterculture and QUEER TOO, they get twisted), specifically Rise Up by Parachute Club comes to mind, which isn’t in st, but similar songs ARE and thats why im so excited to analyze them, because Rise Up was thought to be a queer anthem but was used WITHOUT PERMISSION as the theme for the United Alternative convention (a canadian rightwing convention) and im certain that there’s other pop and rock songs in ST that have similar things that have happened to them, in addition to the ones that i’ve already mentioned  imo this ties into why we don’t HEAR any really harsh metal etc. it’s not an accident. there’s a REASON why metal doesn’t play for eddie until his scene at the end and also why they chose master of puppets specifically and how rock music is literally constantly used as a puppet to reinforce the norm under the guise of rebellion and how EDDIE STILL DIED DESPITE HIS REBELLION and how master of puppets is also about drug use and how people think that they’re in control/the master but they’re actually the puppet of their addiction just like how people often think that they’re being counterculture and progressive but they’re actually reinforcing the norm (see: billy)  and reason this ties into why we hear a KISS song during the hellfire game instead of a dio song or an iron maiden song or any of the more harsh metal songs that eddie is CLEARLY A FAN OF, ones that LITERALLY HAVE FUCKING SONGS ABOUT WIZARDS AND DND RELATED THINGS but they didnt use that but they DID use ‘detroit rock city’ but they CUT THE SUBSTANCE OUT OF IT JUST LIKE HOW CONSERVATIVES CUT THE SUBSTANCE AND COUNTERCULTURE OUT OF SONGS WHEN THEY TWIST THEM FOR THEIR OWN NARRATIVE, because they cut out the intro of detroit rock city where a radio broadcast plays talking about a boy in a car crash AND they cut out the car crash at the end. and this ties into what im saying about cutting the substance out of it because without the context, the song just seems like it’s about rock and roll and having a fun time and a guy recklessly driving to a concert. but WITH the context, we learn that the guy that the song is talking about, the one driving recklessly to a concert, IS THE ONE WHO THE RADIO BROADCAST IS TALKING ABOUT, THE ONE WHO DIED. because we hear the CRASH AT THE END. but the show didn’t include the radio broadcast OR the crash!! because THEY LITERALLY REMOVED THE DANGER and the SUBSTANCE OF THE SONG THEY REMOVED THE FULL CONTEXT, JUST LIKE THE CONSERVATIVES, THE SHOW USED IT TO SUPPORT THEIR OWN NARRATIVE AND NOT SHOW US THE FULL PICTURE/NOT MAKE US AWARE OF THE DANEGR (THE DANGER BEING A.) HOMOPHOBIA AND CONFORMITY BUT ALSO B.) THE LITERAL DANGER OF VECNA AND HOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE DND GAME MIRRORS WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED WITH HENRY/VECNA BUT HOW WE DONT REALIZE IT BECAUSE IT JUST SEEMS LIKE A GAME. and THAT’S just like how the GA sees dnd and the dnd arc in s4 as being JUST about the game, as JUST hearing ‘detroit rock city’ without the context and thinking it’s just about a guy going to a concert, not realizing that it’s about his DEATH AS A RESULT OF THAT CONCERT, just like how the dnd and hellfire arc in s4 it was NEVER just about dnd, it’s about queerness and the aids crisis and homophobia too.  Just like how the satanic panic was NEVER JUST ABOUT DND but the media and conservatives manipulated the rhetoric to make it seem like they were just scared of the game. It was about hating outcasts, upholding the norm, homophobia, and all forms of bigotry. It was about control and maintaining the norm, anti-conformity.  and this lack of use of actual metal music up until master of puppets also ties into how rock music and metal specifically was demonized in the satanic panic and how while people could see eddie as being counterculture and would demonize metal music, they never actually take the time to get to know him just like how they never actually take the time to listen to metal music. because just like how if they took the time to get to know eddie, they’d realize he isn’t evil, the same applies with metal music. and this sounds like im pulling stuff out of my ass but this is why eddie mentions ozzy osbourne to steve and that’s why steve narratively doesnt know who ozzy osbourne is.  it’s not just a random scene, the purpose of this scene is to tie “not getting to know/listen to eddie” to “not getting to know/listen to metal”- why? because OZZY OSBOURNE AND BLACK SABBATH IS LITERALLY KNOWN FOR HAVING VERY POSITIVE MESSAGES ABOUT PEACE AND LOVE AND KINDNESS AND ANTI-WAR IN THEIR SONGS. BUT PEOPLE CAN’T SEE PAST THE HARSH METAL OF IT TO ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. JUST LIKE HOW THEY CAN’T SEE PAST EDDIE’S APPEARANCE AND GET TO KNOW HIM. Steve doesn’t *know* who ozzy osbourne is, just like he doesn’t know eddie, just like how people don’t know metal music, just like how people make baseless assumptions about both of them.  THIS IS ALSO WHY WE SEE STEVE BITING A  BAT, JUST LIKE EDDIE MENTIONS OZZY DOING: BECAUSE STEVE AND OZZY ARENT THAT DIFFERENT, BLACK SABBATH AND THE BEATLES ARENT THAT DIFFERENT, MUCH OF THE CORE MESSAGE IS THE SAME, MESSAGES OF LOVE AND PEACE AND ANTI WAR.This is why we don’t hear ‘real’ metal music in s4 until the end, with master of puppets, because people aren’t seeing eddie for who he is, people, the audience, literally aren’t hearing the music until the end, people don’t see eddie for what he is (a good person and a hero) until he is dead. Just like how people NOW see the fact that black sabbath is full of good messaging, but didn’t see it at the time (which also ties into how black sabbath HAS been used in present-day to reinforce the norm). And all of this ties into ‘shout at the devil’ too, and how Billy and so many people at the party but esp Billy and his character, don’t realize what the song is actually about (motley crue talking about how ‘hey i mean technically this supports you christian folk, because it’s shout AT the devil, not WITH the devil,’  but how that’s rooted in sarcasm because the rightwing christians don’t realize that THEY are the devil, just like Lucas’ ‘normal’s just a raging psychopath’ quote, they don’t realize that their ‘normalcy’ IS the hatred) and then ALSO how ‘shout at the devil’ has been repurposed by nostalgic rightwingers trying to reinforce the norm while thinking that they’re rebelling (ie, again, those rightwingers think that they’re the victims, that they’re shouting at the devil, not realizing that they ARE the devil.)  Just like how black sabbath’s messaging of peace and love but also taking action and even violence against hatred WAS counterculture, because the current culture is hatred, so love is the real counterculture. Just like how I’ve talked about before, having a happy ending for the queer characters is the most counter-culture thing that the show could do, more counter culture and shocking than any violent bury your gays death could possibly ever be, because those circumstances are the NORM, queer success and joy and happiness is the real counterculture.  and how we DID hear metal music with Billy in previous seasons, with him listening to Metallica, but how that’s tied to the fact that BILLY is the one not hearing the music, ignoring the counterculture reality of the lyrics and instead continuing to conform with misogyny and racism and homophobia and heternormativity, he sees hatred as counterculture which is not true because the current norm and culture is rooted around hatred and bigotry.   and then how THAT and the satanic panic ties into a queer allegory and the aids crisis panic and how the music choices circle back to that and how the oppressors tend to see themselves as the oppressed and position themselves as victims (cough Jason cough and cough catholic victim complex cough and the people pushing the satanic panic acting as if they were the ones being being targeted when in reality they were the ones targeting others and how during the aids crisis, homophobes etc saw themselves as the victim of ‘the predatory gays trying to give them aids’ instead of seeing the aids victims as the victims and how it ALL TIES TOGETHER and how VECNA SEES HIMSELF AS THE VICTIM WHEN HE’S THE OPPRESSOR HE SEES HIMSELF AS SAVING PEOPLE AND HAVING BEEN VICTIMIZED WHEN HE IS THE ONE VICTIMIZING PEOPLE!!!!!

AND HOW ALL OF THESE BIG THEMES TIE INTO THE CYCLE OF ABUSE IN A BIG WAY BUT ALSO IN A MORE PERSONALIZED AND SMALLER SCALE WAY WITH ABUSERS SEEING THEMSELVES SOLELY AS VICTIMS AND CONTINUING TO PERPETUATE THAT ABUSE. EVEN LONNIE POSITIONS HIMSELF AS THE VICTIM IN A ROUNDABOUT WAY WHEN IT COMES TO WILL’S DEATH, WANTING TO COLLECT MONEY AS ONE OF THE ‘VICTIMS’ OF THE QUARRY’S NEGLECT/WILL’S DEATH. MEANWHILE, LONNIE WAS THE ABUSER TO WILL, LONNIE WAS THE ONE WHO HURT WILL. BUT HE POSITIONS HIMSELF AS A VICTIM, JUST LIKE HE DOES WITH JOYCE AND JONATHAN, WHEN HE’S TALKING TO JONATHAN IN S1, HE TALKS ABOUT “maybe i’m not the bad guy,” and how JOYCE is the problem. Abusers and oppressors positioning themselves as victims is a constant theme in ST and it only makes sense that it would be reflected in the music, which is why i DONT think that i’m looking too far into it with this writeup!!  and yes this also ties into the s3 trailer baba o riley remix LIKE GOD I NEED TO WORK ON MY ST MUSIC ANALYSIS I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY and how theres a reason why they use certain songs from the 70s vs the 80s and themes of nostalgia but also of using that nostalgia to reinforce the norm of heteronormative, conservative and hateful beliefs.  and i also have a LOT TO SAY ABOUT THE SONG CHOICES FOR WILL AND JONATHAN AND THOSE SONGS BEING USED IN A GENUINELY COUNTERCULTURE WAY WITH WILL BEING GAY AND JONATHAN BEING AN OUTCAST AND HOW BEING COUNTERCULTURE ISNT ABOUT WHAT YOU LISTEN TO BUT ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AND HOW EVEN THOUGH SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO IS ONE OF THOSE SONGS THAT  *HAS* BEEN USED BY THE RIGHTWING TO REINFORCE THE NORM, THE *WAY* THAT ITS USED AND PRESENTED IN ST AND IS LITERALLY ONLY EVER USED IN SITUATIONS WHERE THE CHARACTERS CAN HEAR THE SONG VERSUS OTHER SONGS LIKE ‘ROCK ME LIKE A HURRICANE’ THAT ARE USED IN A WAY THAT CHARACTERS CANT HEAR THEM AND SO ITS NOT ABOUT WHAT THE SONG IS SO MUCH AS IT IS THE ACTIONS TIED TO IT AND HOW ITS BEING USED AND HOW THAT LITERALLY APPLIES TO HOW THE SHOW USES IT BUT ALSO  HOW IT GETS USED IRL AND HOW EVEN SONGS THAT ARE GENUINELY COUNTERCULTURE GET STOLEN AND USED TO REINFORCE THE NORM AND HOW SONGS THAT WERENT INTENDED TO BE COUNTERCULTURE CAN BECOME COUNTERCULTURE AND AND AND  JUST ARGHHH I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND ALSO HOW WE HAVE SONGS *ABOUT* ROCK AND ROLL BUT ARE LACKING IN ACTUALLY GETTING TO HEAR THOSE ROCK AND ROLL SONGS THEMSELVES Regarding songs that are about rock and roll but not actually really rock and roll songs, I am staring DIRECTLY at you, ‘rock and roll hoochie koo’ and ‘rock me amadeus’ in s4 and even ‘detroit rock city’ which sure its a rock song but its also ABOUT ROCK, we get more songs ABOUT ROCK than we do ROCK SONGS and even with detroit rock city, like i said, they REMOVE THE CONTEXT, and it’s very interesting to me, especially with the rock song, ‘play with me’ by extreme that plays when mike is looking for dnd players and how that ties into my gay mike analysis- sorry not sorry- and into the themes of conformity for mike but explicitly how those themes tie into him being GAY, not just that he’s affected by conformity, because he IS affected by it in multiple ways outside of his sexuality, but it’s also explicitly tied TO him being gay and how just like the dnd arc was never just about dnd/games and is also about homophobia and queerness AND how games/dnd has been tied to mike and will’s sexualities and relationships, the song ‘play with me’ is not just about games/mike trying to find people to play games with, it’s also about mike trying to figure out his sexuality/who he wants to be with/’play’ with (be in a relationship with/who he’s attracted to.  and that’s why we get so much ‘mike doesn’t like women’ imagery in those scenes but ALSO more ‘mike DOES like men’ imagery in those scenes and in the van scene with ‘boy’ behind his head whereas in previous seasons the imagery was more focused on ‘mike doesn’t like women’ and how a lot of his attraction towards men in previous seasons was directed towards Will Specifically rather than acknowledging his attraction to men as whole (ie in S4, he has the word ‘boy’ beside his head instead of the word ‘will’ behind him or something representing Will, whereas in s3, we see things representing Will Specifically rather than boys as a whole, things like the Will the Wise drawing beside Mike’s head when he’s making out with El in the bedroom) but now in s4, mike is coming to terms more with his attraction to men as a whole.  and how THAT ties into mike slowly getting over his heteronormativity and internalized homophobia and moving away from just focusing on the heteronormative failure of not being attracted to girls and instead towards his active attraction to men and moving away from viewing everything through that heteronormative lens of seeing everything relative to his attraction to women and through the internalized homophobia lens of being disgusted with himself about his attraction to men (cough sauna scene cough and how im going to show in my gay mike analysis that mike was disgusted with HIMSELF in that scene)  and how mike may be disgusted with himself about his attraction to men but just like how other people/will’s love for mike specifically makes Will feel better/not like a mistake/helps him get over his internalized homophobia, mike’s love for will specifically is what helps him get over his internalized homophobia regarding his active attraction to men, just like how i said, we saw the imagery shift from “attraction to will specifically vs lack of attraction to girls as a whole (rather than lack of attraction to el specifically)” to “attraction to men as a whole specifically in addition to attraction to will and how his attraction to will helped him come to terms with that attraction to men vs still having that lack of attraction to girls as a whole because he’s already come to his realizations about that in s3″ especially with mike’s obvious crush on eddie and how he’s branching out in attraction to men as a whole outside of will because he’s already realized his lack of attraction to girls but is now figuring out his attraction to men in s4 AND how this STILL ties back into how will/mike’s love for will helped him get over his internalized homophobia AND into the music choices in st, because the songs that play during the mike-eddie cafeteria scene are “i was a teenage werewolf” and “fever,” and how long story short the “Teen Wolf” poster in the video store 100% represents Will, especially with ‘Teen Wolf’ literally having a scene where the character comes out as a werewolf but the other person asks them initially if they’re coming out ‘as a fag’ (and theres a million other parallels to will that i could go into but wont for the sake of the length of this post but WILL go into at another time so just take my word for it rn or go look for yourselves at the movie), and so then,  we have “fever,” a song about infatuation that represents mike’s crush on eddie/his sexuality/attraction to men as a whole, but then also ‘I was a teenage werewolf,” a song that TIES THAT ATTRACTION/ABILITY TO COME TO TERMS WITH HIS SEXUALITY to his FEELINGS FOR WILL. It’s not just his crush on eddie that helps him come to terms with it/admit his sexuality for himself, it’s that his feelings for will help him come to terms with his CRUSH ON EDDIE and with his sexualty, since again, like I said, Mike may be able to apply that internalized homophobia hatred to himself, but he CANNOT APPLY IT TO WILL.  And how all of THAT is part of WHY mike seems to go back into the closet (in terms of being out to HIMSELF) at rink o mania/in lenora, why we get ‘in the closet at rink o mania,’ because MIKE IS LITERALLY GOING BACK IN THE CLOSET. because WILL is what makes him feel better about his sexuality, but now that he’s having conflict with will, he’s questioning his sexuality too/his willingness to be out, ESPECIALLY SINCE LIKE I TALKED ABOUT IN ANOTHER POST, HE SEEMS TO THINK THAT WILL TOTALLY HAS A CRUSH ON ANGELA AT RINK O MANIA, SO NOW NOT ONLY IS HE DOUBTING THE IDEA THAT WILL COULD HAVE FEELINGS FOR HIM BUT HES DOUBTING THE IDEA THAT WILL LIKES MEN AT ALL. AND SO IF MIKES LOVE FOR WILL IS TIED TO HIS ABILITY TO BE OPEN WITH HIMSELF ABOUT HIS SEXUALITY AS A WHOLE, THEN WHEN HE FEELS LIKE HE’S LOSING WILL/IT ISNT REQUITED/HE’S WRONG ABOUT THINKING THAT WILL COULD BE GAY, THEN HE STARTS TO DOUBT HIMSELF AND HIS OWN SEXUALITY TOO AND WHETHER OR NOT HE’S ACTUALLY GAY OR IF THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ELSE ‘WRONG’ WITH HIM/IF HIS LACK OF ATTRACTION TO GIRLS COMES FROM SOMETHING ELSE.  AND SO MIKE IS LITERALLY GOING BACK INTO THE CLOSET AT RINK O MANIA HES LITERALLY GOING BACK INTO IT DESPITE THE CLOSET DOOR BEING OPEN IN S4 EP1 DESPITE HOW HE SEEMS MORE LIKE HIMSELF AND PLAYS DND IN HAWKINS BUT THEN TOTALLY CHANGES IN LENORA. He’s BACK in the closet at rink o mania, but started closing the door as soon as he saw will/was gay panicking and having doubts.  And how imo that ties into why we see so much bi imagery at rink o mania, but how I still think that aligns with gay mike and actually plays a key role in backing up what i’ve said here about the connection between mike’s love for will and his ability to get over his internalized homophobia/embrace his attraction to men: because we specifically see WILL in front of the bi imagery more than we do mike: because not only is mike reconsidering his own ability to be out/his own attraction to men, but he’s also reconsidering any suspicions that he may have had about Will being gay, because he seemingly sees Will having a crush on Angela, which i talked about at length in this post, and how like i’ve said before, when you look at the evidence objectively without the context of Will’s sexuality being confirmed, WILL seems like the possibly bi one because his sexuality isn’t nearly as framed around lack of attraction to women as mike’s is- and mike doesn’t have that outside ‘will is gay’ confirmation from noah schnapp/the duffers, so he IS relying on that ‘objective, in-the-show- evidence,’ but actually has even LESS evidence than us for will being gay and not bi, because Mike hasn’t seen things like the conversation between Hopper and Joyce about Lonnie calling Will a fag, he hasn’t seen Will’s pov the way that we have, at rink o mania, he hasn’t seen Will making a painting for him, he didn’t see Will’s reaction at the sauna, there’s so much gay Will imagery that mike HAS NOT SEEN.  He’s seen the homophobic bullying etc though, so he does still have enough to go off to suspect that will could be gay/into men, but he doesn’t have confirmation, and he DEFINITELY hasnt seen a ton of ‘will explicitly doesn’t like women imagery’ because even we are the audience havent seen very much of that, not nearly as much as we’ve seen for mike, which, mike’s own lack of attraction towards women is what he’s going base his analysis of Will off of, and we know that mike has a LOT of scenes where he’s put into a situation where he feels that lack of attraction, whereas not only does will have many, he has EVEN FEWER that mike actually gets to see (ie, the girl in lenora, mike doesn’t see that) which, THAT, imo is why we see the bi imagery at rink o mania, when the two of them are fighting and mike is confused about his sexuality and will’s sexuality, but see way more explicitly gay/not interested in women imagery everywhere else in the show. it’s not that they forgot to put the bi imagery in other scenes and instead their hand slipped and they put explicitly gay/lack of attraction to women imagery. it’s that the bi imagery at rink o mania serves a specific purpose in regards to will and mike’s dynamic and sexualities and trying to figure themselves and eachother out. (not that bi people are just confused but that this is the 80s and that will and mike are trying to figure out labels and mike is trying to figure out if will IS bi and mike is trying to figure out if hes going to continue to try and pretend to  have attraction to women/stay in the closet due to the connection between mike’s relationship with will vs mike’s ability to embrace his own sexuality)  (which, just expanding on that, like i said, mike has seen the homophobia that will’s faced AND mike in s3 feels like he’s seen will having a lack of attraction to girls- the ‘day free of girls’ scene despite the fact that that scene was more about will’s friends ignoring him than it was about will’s attraction to girls, we’re looking at this from mike’s pov- so i think that mike could absolutely have suspicions that will IS gay and that it’s not just random bullying IN ADDITION to his own hopes about his feelings being requited) It’s like how if Lucas was mike’s “straight” guide (mike going to lucas about girls in s3 constantly and letting lucas take the lead and how lucas also pushes mike towards el when making fun of him in 1), then Will is mike’s gay guide LMAO.  It’s not that Mike is only gay if he can be with will/if will is gay: mike is still gay regardless, but it’s about mike’s ability to accept and embrace that gayness. Especially since if Mike is being internally homophobic to himself and believing in the homophobic stereotypes, then he, in his mike brain, has to also apply that hatred/stereotypes to Will, which is where it becomes difficult for mike and why Will is tied to mike’s ability to embrace his sexuality outside of just his love for will specifically.  And how while Mike’s love for will is what helps him get over his internalized homophobia, his platonic love for el is what helps him get over his heteronormativity (he experiences BOTH imo because heteronormativity alone does NOT explain his disgust and shame towards HIMSELF during the sauna scene and how he was the one holding the door open etc etc but thats a topic for the full gay mike analysis) because he’s hurting her as a result of it and doesn’t want to hurt her because he DOES love her platonically and care about her!  And so that’s the thing. Mike’s love for Will is tied to his active attraction to men/his internalized homophobia, whereas his platonic love for El/his relationship with El is what’s tied to heteronormativity. This is also why I don’t believe that Mike has been intentionally using El as a beard all along, because El isn’t narratively connected to the internalized homophobia side of things, she’s connected to the heternormativity side of things.  and how THAT ties into that fact that gay mike works SO WELL with el and her arc and character and how once el finds out that it was never ABOUT HER as a person, that it’s not that mike doesnt LOVE HER but rather that he’s not attracted to girls AT ALL, she’s going to be HAPPIER than if she found out that mike just fell out of love with her for who she is or something about her/that mike chose Will over her. That’s REALLY one of the big things that makes me a gay mike truther is because if he wasn’t gay, El wouldn’t need to be set up the way that she is as a character, wouldn’t need to be set up in such a specific way with a lack of knowledge about homophobia, wouldn’t need to be set up as a character who’s felt inherently unloveable for who she is, wouldn’t need to be set up as being twins with Will/the writers clearly not just wanting to pit them against eachother, wouldn’t need to be set up in a way where BOTH her and mike don’t understand attraction/romance, because if she was a typical straight girl not raised in a lab, she would have a better/even just a more existent understanding of romance and attraction due to the pressures of heteronormativity that results in girls having to face those topics at a young age, and so then, Mike would be the only one in the couple who doesn’t understand it/is having to figure it out from scratch because he’s gay. But with the way that El’s set up, it’s meant to put them both on equal footing with not understanding attraction/not having a great knowledge of its existence/what it is/how it’s defined and how it feels.  And sure, they’re kids and of course ANY kids don’t understand attraction perfectly: but a gay kid in the 80s and a girl raised in a lab have less of an understanding of it/experience with it. And absolutely, bi people did NOT have it easy in the 80s, I’m not saying that it was easier for them to understand their feelings, I’m saying that they DID have feelings towards the ‘opposite’ gender, whereas for Mike that attraction to the ‘opposite gender’ it’s a blank slate because it doesn’t exist for him, just like it is for El, because it didn’t exist for her in the lab.  If mike was anything other than gay, El wouldn’t be need to set up in a way where Mike being gay is the best-case scenario for her relationship with him and her own arcs and themes and having a happy/satisfying conclusion to them.  So many girls in the 80s who aren’t El, who HAVE been raised with that heteronormativity and understanding of attraction/even if they dont understand, having more of a knowledge of its existence at ALL than el does from a young age would be angry and very likely homophobic if they found out that their boyfriend was gay. But El won’t be. And that way, her relationship with Will isn’t hurt, her relationship with Mike isn’t hurt by him being gay (whereas if he was anything but gay, their relationship would be hurt by him ‘falling out of love’ with her for who she is/something about her, but if he was never in love with her, and isn’t into girls at all, then it’s not about her), that way, El isn’t put into a position of having to choose whether or not to be on the same side as homophobes, who are portrayed consistently as the bad guys in the show.  (I am NOT saying that El being mad at mike would be homophobic. I AM saying that if she was set up in a different way, she would have to make the CHOICE of being homophobic or not, of what side to be on, but this way, she isn’t put into that position, which aligns more with her narrative and character) And like we see in the s4 bedroom fight, El is upset about Mike not saying he loves her, but I also think she’s more upset about Mike lying to her. She KNOWS that he doesn’t show that he’s in love, but she wants to see if he can even say it, if he’ll lie about it or not, and I think the REAL hurt comes from him lying about it.  And so, if Mike is gay, then not only is “mike lying to el about being in love with her” resolved, but “el being hurt by mike not loving her/feeling unloveable for who she is” is resolved, because it was never ABOUT HER.  And sure, “mike lying to el about being in love with her” could be resolved if mike was bi and just fell out of love with her and then was honest with her about it, but again, that doesn’t align with a.) the cracks in their relationship from the VERY BEGINNING IN S1 and b.)  with a satsifying conclusion for el’s arc, themes, and characters, and with her and mike and will all staying on good terms with eachother.  Like I’ve been saying: if not el, then who? Then WHAT GIRL if will specifically wasn’t an option bc it’s not just that he wants to be with will? If mike isn’t in love with el/attracted to her but IS still attracted to girls, then WHAT WOULD HE CHANGE ABOUT EL? WHAT GIRL DOES HE WANT? HE’S ALREADY TRIED TO MOLD HER INTO HIS ‘IDEAL’ GIRL FROM S1 TO S3 AND NOT IN AN INTENTIONALLY HARMFUL WAY BUT IN A ‘VERY INFLUENCED BY HETERONORMATIVITY AND TRYING TO MAKE EL MEET THE SAME EXPECTATIONS THAT HE FEELS HE HAS TO MEET’ WAY. BUT THAT STILL WASN’T ENOUGH!!! Because Mike’s ideal girl DOESNT EXIST. And the closest that we get to it, the scene where Mike initiates the affection, the closest we get to him being attracted to her (even though he isn’t, but it’s the closest scene we get), is when El is a.) dressed more stereotypically masculinely, b.) she looks so similar to will that the guy at the police station literally mistook her for will and c.) she has very little understanding of the world/unique personality/ability to articulate that personality (she does have a unique personality but it isnt SHOWN to mike very much in s1 compared to the other seasons which is the thing).   The closest that we get to Mike being attracted to El, the scene where HE initiates it for once (even during the makeout/affection scenes in s2, El is the one initiating more, she’s the one holding onto HIS arm, she’s the one holding HIS face while they makeout and just sits there or takes her hands off of him), is a scene where El is the closest that she is to resembling a man. And it’s not just that mike still likes women but prefers masculine women, because even THEN, he’s still not fully attracted to her, he’s still operating around heteronormativity and what he thinks he has to do rather than what he actually wants/is attracted to, because he’s still figuring out what he wants/is attracted to.   El is literally his ‘ideal girl/the closest thing to it’ in that scene because she MUST BE the closest thing to an ‘ideal girl’ for him in that scene because it’s the only scene where HE initiates the kiss, its the closest he can get to loving her/being attracted to her, even though he doesn’t/isn’t, it’s the closest that he gets to it.   How are all of the issues with mike and el’s relationship explained if Mike was genuinely attracted to her at some point? They’re not. They’re not fully explained or fully resolved, even though parts of them can be explained. If they wanted to make Mike anything other than explicitly gay, it wasn’t necessary to set El up in the way that she’s set up. Not that El’s character revolves around Mike, but rather, that they could have addressed the exact same themes and ideas with her character without needing to set her up in a way that works perfectly with gay mike.  And how going back to my discussion about counterculture and music, and what is and isn’t counterculture and how people like Billy think that hatred is counterculture when in reality, love and happiness is counter-culture (just like how homophobes and bigots today bitch about how ‘the woke mob is overtaking everything and cishet white conservatives are a minority’), and Mike is starting to embrace counter-culture and anti-conformity in s4 because he’s realizing that love and happiness is the real counter-culture, and beginning to get over his heteronormativity and realize that hatred is the norm and that conformity and the norm sucks and hurts people (whereas in s3 he was trying to embrace conformity and continue to reinforce the norm). Mike is starting to realize that just like I talked with the music, bigots are using symbols of freedom and love and anti-bigotry to turn themselves into the victims Mike is getting over his internalized homophobia because like I said, he not only can’t apply that homophobic rhetoric to will, but being unable to apply it to will makes it more difficult for him to apply it to himself.   People who have enforced heteronormativity and homophobia are acting like they’re the victims of having to deal with queer people rather than the other way around, acting like they’re the victims of the aids crisis rather than queer people, acting like they’re the victims of people like eddie rather than eddie being the victims of people like them. Mike is realizing that society isn’t victimizied by his attraction to men, that it isn’t something bad- that it ISNT BAD because something that hurts something that’s bad (ie mike’s sexuality ‘hurting’ society/heteronormativity) is actually something good. He is realizing that the norm sucks, that the norm is hatred.  People are also using dnd to push their bigoted narrative, it’s all wrapped into the satanic panic alongside the music which is then tied to queerness and the aids crisis and homophobia. Mike was rejecting dnd/embracing that bigoted narrative to an extent in s3 but now he is starting to go against that narrative and embrace dnd and that ties into him embracing his sexuality like i’ve talked about already in this post.  Anyway im gonna explain these last few sections and the links between counter culture, conformity, the ST soundtrack choices and gay mike in a different post/in the analysis, but I need to rewatch the show and analyze the music relative to mike in order to really fully make the point about mike and counterculture and conformity and how it ties into gay mike and how it’s all demonstrated by the ST music.  conclusion: mike wheeler is gay the music is gay the music supports gay mike, the stranger things music team are absolutely genius and the way that the narrative is so interwoven with various topics and how that interweaving is supported by the music choices and the ways in which those music choices are implemented is absolutely fantastic.  god i need to finish both my music analysis and gay mike analysis.

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good LORD the hellfire club vs satanic panic could not possibly be more of an allegory for queerness and the aids epidemic vs homophobia/panic about the aids crisis:

in s4 ep2, Jason literally says “it’s like an epidemic” when talking about dnd + the satanic panic and how it’s spreading across America.

yknow. like the aids epidemic.

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“eddie’s pocket hanky/bandana is queercoding about hanky code” “NO!! eddie’s pocket hanky was something use to tell people that you’re a metallica fan and is based on james hetfield’s pocket bandana”

it’s both. the answer is both. it’s specifically meant to be both on purpose and it’s done in a way where its both rather than just one (ie choosing a hanky pocket side and colour that aligns both w some of the hanky code stuff AND with james hetfield’s pocket bandana) because of eddie’s secondhand queercoding and how eddie’s queercoding is always tied to things that have double meaning/isn’t direct (unlike much of the queercoding around mike and will) because the queercoding itself is literally being filtered through another layer (the other layer w the hanky being the james hetfield hanky reasoning) bc the queercoding is less about eddie himself being queer and more a.) the way that hellfire operates as an allegory for queerness rather than being a direct ‘gay club/gsa’ just like how eddie has that extra layer when it comes to his queercoding, just like the hellfire does and b.) it’s more about mike’s gay crush on eddie than eddie himself actually being queer. 

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good lord i need to do a writeup on eddie’s queercoding and how it ties to mike’s crush on eddie and how the best way that i can describe a lot of it is ‘secondhand’ queercoding where it’s not directly but rather through another layer + how the reason for that is because it’s not necessarily about eddie being queer but a.) about mike’s queer crush on eddie and b.) hellfire as an allegory for queerness  theres more to this but rn i am staring Directly at the choice of a dio patch for eddie’s jacket despite the fact that we don’t ever get a dio song associated with him or even a dio tape in his collection of tapes and how imo it’s ‘secondhand’ queercoding because ronnie james dio was also the lead singer of the band ‘rainbow,’ but they used dio instead of rainbow because there’s meant to be an extra layer to it bc they’re not trying to directly show eddie as queer but rather the fact that a.) mike has a queer crush on him and b.) hellfire acts as an allegory for queerness, there’s that hellfire allegory layer to how they address queerness rather than saying the words ‘aids epidemic,’ jason calls dnd an ‘epidemic’ and how just like there’s that hellfire allegory layer to the theme of queerness in st, there’s an extra layer of eddie’s costuming that makes it not directly queercoded but rather second-hand queercoded like how the allegory is like ‘secondhand’ queer imagery. i hope this makes sense but god i need to do a full writeup. 

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Gay Mike Wheeler Posts

The OG ‘if Will Is Gay Men Who Die By Hate Crimes, Mike Is Gay Men Who Die By Suicide’ And Hypervisible Vs Invisible Gay Men And Ted Wheeler’s Ignorance Post (x)

If Mike Ever Actually Loved El/Even Just Had A Crush On Her, Why Didn’t He Use The Moment He Actually Fell In Love With Her As Part Of His Monologue Instead Of Claiming It Was Love At First Sight? (x)

The Rainbow Lens Flare On Top Of Mike In The Shed (x)

Mike Thinks Will Had A Crush On Angela (x)

Mike’s Figuring Out What Romantic Love Actually Is/Feels Like (x)

Mike’s Sweetie Pie and Phoebe Cates Expression (x)

Mike Calling El Pretty Isn’t Meant To Be Romantic (x)

The 60 Minutes Namedrog And Its AIDs Themed Episode (x)

El Kisses Mike The Same Way The Fleshflayer Flays People (x)

We’ve Seen This Setup With Will Behind Mike And El Before (x)

Initial Post About Mike’s Crush on Eddie (x)

Watch Where You’re Going, Frogface (x)

Flying Around In Fairyland With All The Other Fairies: Mike And The Fairy Wings (x)

Why Am I So Confident About Gay Mike? Do I Think I Can See The Future? (x)

Women and Bullshit Media Propaganda (x)

Heteronormativity and Troy Pushing Mike (x)

If Mike Was Ever Attracted To El Then What Was The Point Of The Mileven Familial Parallels/References From The Start? (x)

Mike, The Rainbow Jazzercise Sign and George Michael (x)

Mike’s Playlist and Frankie Goes To Hollywood (x)

Mike’s Playlist and Level 42 (x)

Mike’s Playlist, Limahl, and Neverending Story (x)

Mike’s Playlist, Michael, and Franz Ferdinand (x)

Another Gay Vs Bi Mike Ask (x)

More Gay Mike Ranting (x)

Mike, The Sauna, and the Lingerie Store Scene (x)

Initial Post About The Hellfire Club As An Allegory For Queerness (x)

There Is No Actual Mike Will El Love Triangle (x)

Another Rant About Elmike and Gay Mike (x)

Max’s Rainbow Sleeves And Byler (x)

Gay Mike And The Coca Cola Kid (x)

How Gay Can We Write This Guy While Still Having People Think He’s Straight? (x)

Mike’s Expression Towards Dart vs Towards Phoebe Cates (x)

Mike and The Rainbow On The Muppets Movie Poster (x)

Mike Isnt Just Rebounding Into A New Relationship (x)

Mike’s Reaction To “Youve Made It Super Clear” vs to “You Dont Love Me Anymore?” (x)

I Loved You, I Loved All Of You (x)

A Rant About “Will You Be Like My Brother?” (x)

Reblog Regarding Mike’s Lack Of Attraction To Girls (x)

Quit Viewing Mike And His Sexuality Through A Will Lens: They Arent The Same Person (x)

Yet Another Gay Mike and Elmike Rant: Gay Mike Is Actually The Best/Most Amicable Ending For Mileven (x)

We’ve Been Seeing Gay Mike This Whole Time and It Doesnt Need Any Extra Long Winded Explanation (x)

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im gonna do a whole post about this and include it in the gay mike analysis, but: what if i told you that “60 minutes,” the show that’s mentioned in that science lab scene with mike in s4 ep1, was a show that aired weekly, every sunday, and that THAT WEEK’S EPISODE IN 1986 (the week of march 16th, which would have been the sunday before the show takes place, which is on friday march 21st) IN THE USA IRL was all about aids and is actually a fairly famous segment so its very likely that the duffers/writers knew about it? so that’s the exact episode that the science lab kid likely would have watched that week? and even though he’s talking about dnd/has therefore likely seen other episodes about the satanic panic too, the point of this is to reinforce the fact that a.) the hellfire club works as an allegory for queerness and b.) the satanic panic works as an allegory for the aids crisis + the panic surrounding it?  the queercoding in this show goes so deep its insane

and the segment was about aids in CALIFORNIA, no less. yknow. the place where mike’s visiting. they KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING WITH THIS. 

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watch where you’re going, frogface

“watch where you’re going, frogface”

“he was probably killed by some other queer”

I just think it’s interesting that in a scene about homophobic bullying, not only is Mike the one physically targeted the most & has insults about will directed at him, but he’s also the only party member there who gets called an insulting name that starts with “f,” (dustin and lucas’ nicknames are ’toothless,’ and ‘midnight’).

But what about Will? What was his insulting nickname?

We know ‘zombie boy’ wouldn’t have started until s2/after will got back from the ud. so what were they calling will before that? I think they were either a.) outright calling him a fag or b.) calling him a freak c.) calling him a fairy or d.) all of the above. 

Mike and Will likely being the only two in the party whose’ insulting names started with ‘f’. fairy/freak/outright using ‘fag’ for will, and ‘frogface’ for Mike. because they’re the two gay members. because as absurd as it sounds, relative to what the other nicknames are ‘frogface’ isn’t that far off from ‘faggot’. like cmon. “freak” is often used as a stand-in for fag, especially with the hellfire stuff & hellfire acting as an allegory for queerness, and so for there to already be a precedent of other words starting with ‘F,’ (freak) being used as a standing for ‘fag,’ I don’t think it’s farfetched for ‘frogface,’ to operate in a similar way and to be a subtle nod to Mike’s gayness.

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the visual parallels between jason and henry ….smthn smthn jason was targeting “freaks,” and the hellfire club smthn smthn “freaks” is paralleled to “fags” and the hellfire club is an allegory for queerness smthn smthn jason targeting people for being queer smthn smthn Barb and Will were both queer smthn smthn Henry targeting queer people esp initially back in 1983.

Like the blonde hair. The light coloured button-up shirt. The constant speeches/monologues. The murderous side to both of them. The fact that both Henry and Jason were going after kids (henry killing the kids in the lab, Jason going after the hellfire kids as a whole in addition to Eddie) We even see Jason in a white button-up at one point in addition to his pink one.

The visual/cinematography parallels between the nancy vs jason scene and the El vs Henry scene!! And Nancy and El are paralleled CONSTANTLY in this show in general.

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i am not a ted wheeler defender tm but i am going to defend him from the blatant mischaracterization of him as some rampantly abusive dude who would beat his son for being gay ted is not the world’s #1 dad don’t get me wrong he has caused some Issues for Mike but as a character he represents IGNORANCE not active hatred. this is not me saying that ted is good. this is me saying that i see people hate him for the wrong reasons that don’t even align w his character or themes. like ted is a living version of the bystander effect. he’s the epitome of “being neutral means siding with the oppressor”. he is not lonnie byers 2.0. 

this is might be a controversial take but considering what i’ve already talked about with how we see ted’s attitude towards the media coverage of the hellfire club change at the end of s4 and how he’s been questioning the news and government more and more throughout the seaasons, I don’t think that Ted would outright reject Mike if he found out Mike was gay. Especially by the time season 5 comes around. Right now? I think he’d still have a very ‘ignoring it” and still not sure about it and still vaguely homophobic attitude that would result in Mike feeling dismissed and ignored. But I don’t think he’d completely align with all of the homophobic rhetoric going around at the time. In previous seasons? Sure, although again he wouldn’t be like actively violent, just more of a dick about it. But in season 4, we start to see him question that homophobic reagan rhetoric. 

like he’s not a hellfire club enthusiast!! but he IS realizing that a lot of the news coverage of it is bullshit. and considering how the hellfire club and the satanic panic are 100000% an allegory for queerness and the aids crisis...