#like what was the one way closet sign for then? the end of s3? literally the entirety of s4? blue meets yellow? glass closet references?

[lighthouseas]

absolutely infuriating to me when people do not understand basic storytelling

[bylertruth3r]

Mike and Will literally share shoes (and Will might be sleeping in Mike's room) and might not be dating yet when they start dating they're gonna share a whole closet and flirt with each other about how good they look in each other's clothes and just being obnoxious (I will rewatch those scenes so many times) what if they're sharing/swapping shoes because it's the 80's and they're in a really homophobic and conservative town and if they want to give little hints that they're dating and want to openly show it (to at least their friends) they have to be subtle about it? and maybe when they're at home they share clothes without feeling like they have to be careful with how they act around each other and can be openly affectionate (like them in s2)

Thank you for pointing it out @cler1csfink

Confirmation that they're the same shoes and they're both size 10 so yeah they're sharing shoes

and Mike brought these shoes from Hawkins which means the puma suede belong to Will

and in a leaked footage El and Mike broke up/ were already broken up because Mike says "we'll still be friends" and "i wanted to tell you first" which makes me think he might have came out to her (and in that video he was literally wearing his boyfriend's shoes)

video from @nowmemoriees

in s1 during that scene on the train tracks they're friends and in the leaked video they were wearing similar clothes to what they were wearing in that s1 scene where they were friends and could trust each other. i think Mike's gonna come out to her (as gay) there which would explain why El was crying, and why Mike said "i wanted to talk to you first", in s1 Mike said "friends tell the truth" to El and in s5 it's Mike's turn to be honest about himself and maybe he'll tell her he's in love with Will or maybe he'll tell her that he's dating Will

it's the same song that played when Robin came out to Steve, obviously Steve had a crush on Robin but she's a lesbian and can only love him platonically while even though Mike tried to love El romantically he couldn't do it because he's gay and he didn't even bother to close his eyes and kiss her back

plus in a deleted script it says he was mad at himself

and the song playing when Mike and El were kissing in s3 "can't fight this feeling" is about someone being in love with their friend and not knowing what to do about it while already being in a relationship with someone else so it's about Mike being in love with Will and not knowing what to do so he represses it and pushes him away to get over him but then realizing it's not working (which is something he realized at the end of s3) and he's gay and he want on a double date with Will and Lumax after that

and Mike in s4 was trying to be normal and might be into new things (men, because dnd is not new)

and

and in s4 "in the closet at rink o mania" started playing Mike took what Will said "and us?" as romantic and felt the need to clarify that they're friends and Will said they used to be best friends and the camera panned back to Mike plus synth music is his thing since he has "Smalltown Boy" (gay song) as his first song on his spotify playlist, it's a song about a gay man leaving his homophobic town to start a new life and Finn said he wants Mike to leave Hawkins

and he has a "one way" sign pointing to his closet because he's gay and closeted and in his room he has a poster of a shirtless man while the others (Steve, B*lly, and Lucas' "friends") all have women posters because they like women, Mike has all the things he loves the most in his room, a wizard (Will) and buff men <33, and a buff male dragon for some reasons and he has Will's drawings in his room

Mike being obsessed with Superman? and him having a poster of a shirtless man while Steve, B*lly and the tigers all had posters of women in bikinis (because they like girls) Will has a skinny pink panther poster in his room which symbolizes his type in men (Mike) Mike has a shirtless man poster and a buff male dragon poster which symbolizes his type in men (Will) (he's not really buff but he's stronger than Mike) they're each other's type and love each other plus you can see Mike looking at Will's arms during some scenes

also in s3 he was happy about Dustin having a gf and asked him about her but then in s4 when he "finds out" Will has a crush on a "girl" he doesn't ask him about "her" and acts distant (he was pretending he didn't care but he was jealous) and he asked Will about the painting because he was hoping it was for him (it was)

and he realized Will loves him back in the van scene, Mike wants to feel needed and Will needs him, Mike felt lost without Will, Will felt lost without Mike, Will loves him, Mike loves him back, they both think the other doesn't love them, they will prove each other wrong in s5 when Mike finds out Will lied about the painting and loves him back, they love each other the way they want to be loved

and he was so happy to see Will drew a heart on his shield

which is literally an engagement ring, no hands because they'll be more than friends in s5

they've been filming a lot at that farm.. and Ross and his wife said that they enjoyed eyewitness

and Lukas and Mike both have internalized homophobia (Lukas was dating a girl to be normal and then he breaks up with his gf and starts dating Philip,his male best friend)

and if this leak is actually correct there would be another parallel. the episode 2 of s5 is called "the vanishing of ***** Wheeler and if Holly goes missing then Mike and Will are gonna go looking for her in the upside down and maybe they'll kiss there (maybe that's where Mike's gonna get injured)

because in eyewitness Lukas gets injured and his boyfriend stays with him and he kisses his forehead, Lukas' dad sees it (he's ok with it)

and in s2 Mike stayed with Will at the hospital so now it's Will's turn

they've been filming a lot at that farm.. and Ross and his wife said that they enjoyed eyewitness and they filmed at like 3 or 4 different farms (one of them has swings) and they're literally filming at one right now

more s5 leaks and Mike and El staying friends after the break up and Mike being worried for Will <33 and Mike and Robin bonding over their partners being in danger

Will is wearing one of Mike's shirts in s5, Mike wore something similar in s3 it's a gap shirt and Eddie said Mike wears gap shirts and Will has never worn something like this in the previous seasons and he didn't bring that many clothes back to Hawkins so he's gonna have to wear Mike's if he's staying at Mike's (the Wheelers added 2 chairs to their breakfast table and Will's tiger plushie is in Mike's room, it makes me think that they're already dating in the scene because Will is wearing blue yellow and green which are Byler's colors

Noah liking another byler edit? fork found in the kitchen. pic from @iamforbyler from here . there are hints that Mike and Will's first kiss will be in s5 episode 7 (during Jopper's first kiss there were boxes that said MW705, Mike and Will s5 episode 7) they definitely told him to promote Byler again to introduce Byler as boyfriends to the GA and Millie is not promoting mlvn anymore and when they asked her what her favorite pop culture couple was she said the couple from twlight instead of mlvn

Will's wearing Mike's black jeans, the blue shirt looks like something s2 Mike would wear but the undershirt looks like Will's in s4. he's just stealing his boyfriend's clothes atp because Will has never worn black jeans before and he's wearing blue (Mike's color) and Mike's the only one in the party who has worn black jeans and Will might be staying at Mike's because his tiger plushie was in Mike's room and the Wheelers added 2 chairs to their breakfast table plus Will has to stay at Mike's since he doesn't have a house in Hawkins and the cabin is too small for all the Byers to live in.

maybe he's wearing Mike's black jeans from s5 instead of the s4 ones but either way they're still Mike's jeans since Will has never worn black jeans before s5 and Mike has, Will is stealing his boyfriend's clothes, plus Mike is wearing Will's shoes in s5 <33

Byler is so obviously gonna happen even without all those proofs because they gave mlvn the stancy storyline of Nancy not being able to say "I love you" to Steve because she's in love with Jonathan and they didn't give that storyline to Jopper, Lumax and Jancy or even Duzie which are healthy couples who don't lie about who they are to each other and never felt unloved by their partners, and Mike wants to feel needed and Will needs him and El doesn't and Millie said El realized she's her own superhero and that she's gonna figure out who she is without Mike and Millie is not promoting mlvn anymore

Mike and Will spent s3 acting like they were the exes because in s2 Mike was overly affectionate with Will but he stopped doing that when he got a gf because he saw what he did as romantic so in his mind being affectionate with Will even just hugging him or just holding his hand like he did in s2 would be cheating because he's in love with Will and he's gay

Mike becomes less and less interested in El the more feminine she becomes, it becomes more difficult for him to pretend he's straight i mean he "fell in love" with her when she looked like a boy and people kept calling her a boy..

Mike probably thought she was a boy at first, everyone kept calling El the boy with the buzzcut at first in s1 and Mike said "that's not Will" instead of "that's a girl" and interesting thing is the more feminine El becomes the less interested in her Mike becomes, he probably thought El was a boy at first and she was wearing a yellow shirt (Will's color) maybe she reminded him of Will?

I mean Mike being gay aside who would you rather for him to be with?

A, with someone who doesn't understand him and he feels like he has to change himself to be with and who makes him feel insicure?

B, with someone who he feels like he can fully be himself with and who understands him and who puts him on the first place and makes him feel loved? B right? with Will

Jancy had their "we're just friends" moment and they kissed in 2 and Jopper had their "it's just 2 friends getting together for a nice dinner" moment and they kissed in s4 , Lumax had their "she's not my girlfriend" moment and they kissed in s2 and Byler had their "we're friends, we're friends" moment (started by Mike who doesn't know Will is gay) and they'll kiss in s5, there were no moments like these between Dustin and Lucas because they're not in love with each other

Byler's first cameo in a book and they're kissing and holding hands<33 it's about Alina wanting to ask a guy out and she catches the guy (Ben) kissing his boyfriend (Janos), there's carved "W+M" on the tree and a "byler" sign in the second pic, they probably asked permission to Netflix and people who worked on st to add them which makes Byler already canon? the author of the book reversed the arrow on Mike's pocket to point at Will.. and it's close to his heart.. that's adorable

pic from here @sususu34

originally El was supposed to die in s1 (I'm glad they didn't kill her) and they were already planning to make Will in love with Mike since s1? plus if they wanted to make Will move on they would've given him a bf in the previous seasons like with Dustin and Suzie because Max didn't like Dustin back. So basically Mike and Will are gonna get together in s5

JEALOUS MIKE WHEELER WELCOME BACK, Will getting his own love triangle as he should, or maybe it's just Mike since it says "a love interest" not "a new love interest".. I kinda want to see Mike being in pain for a bit tho since I had to witness Will being in pain for 4 seasons, I kinda want a guy to flirt with Will and Will tries to get to know the character to move on from Mike and Mike gets mad and jealous about it, although they did say there were no new characters in it.. and the only new boy is Derek who's Holly's age so maybe the love interest is just Mike, and Mike is gonna be Will's boyfriend, they literally just confirmed Byler because they said Will is getting a boyfriend and they said they won't add any major characters in s5 so that means Mike is gonna be Will's boyfriend

they literally just confirmed Byler is endgame because they said Will is getting a boyfriend and the Duffers said they won't add any major characters in s5 so Mike's gonna be Will's boyfriend since the only new characters are a woman a boy who's 10 and a family with 2 little kids and the Duffers said that Will's emotional arc (his relationship with Mike) is gonna tie up the whole season, if they wanted to give Will another boyfriend they would've done it in the previous seasons (like how they handled Dustin's unrequited love for Max in s2 and gave him a gf in s3) instead of making Will in love with Mike for 4 seasons

Mike is gonna be Will's love interest and boyfriend and they know it that's why they only allowed their subscribers to see this tweet to avoid a lawsuit, leak here, this leaker is really reliable and from Reddit

There's a leak about how Mike and Will are gonna clean each other's wounds in s5 episode 2 like Jancy did in s1, maybe Mike is gonna get hurt while protecting Will from something and Will is probably gonna be there scolding him while cleaning Mike's wounds and Mike is just staring at Will's face and not listening to a single word and blushing

this leaker has a source that was an extra for 2 weeks, take everything as a grain of salt, nothing is confirmed, Mike's gonna kiss Will first (and it's gonna be angsty) after he finds out Will lied about the painting and loves him back, the kiss is gonna happen halfway through the season or later

So according to a leak Mike has finally accepted that he's gay and he's not trying to be normal (straight) anymore, and he's discovering things about himself, he's gonna kiss Will first

So Finn's new st playlist (for s5) is really interesting.. Mike is gay, "it's a passing phase" "give it a hundred years, it won't go away' (from "angst in my pants")"I don't want to be the one whose coming out first" (it's from "don't ask me to explain) Mike wants Will to come out first and to confess first, and "should you need a love that's true, it's me" (from "what you're doing), Will needs Mike and Mike knows it, Mike and Will both have "just what I needed" as the last song in their playlists because they need each other, Mike also has a song about dreaming and thinking about a person they know they're not supposed to, it's his POV of Byler

This is the playlist (STurn), Finn makes playlists for characters he plays for inspiration

Mike tried to lie to himself and pretend that he could love El but he can't (because he's gay and in love with Will), there's a song called "don't ask me anything" in his playlist and the lyrics are "it's so easy to lie to myself and pretend i could love you but i can't" the last lyrics are about a failed relationship with a girl

in s5 episode 4 there will be a flashback with 8 yo Mike and Will and 13 yo Jonathan, the fact that they're spending so much time on Byler (and even giving us Miwi flashbacks) and that we already got confirmation that Will's gonna have a boyfriend (it's Mike) should tell y'all everything (they're gonna get together), they spent s2 and s4 together and they're gonna be a team (jopper parallel) in s5 and spend most of s5 together, they're gonna film the scene in early July, Mike's the only one with lines so the scene is gonna be shot from his POV of Byler

Mike and Will are gonna spend most of s5 together because they're gonna be a team (jopper parallel) and they're gonna have scenes with Rovickie where they're gonna be a group, Mike's obviously gay because otherwise they wouldn't have put him with other queer people, plus El's gonna have a separate arc from Mike (because they're gonna break up and she's gonna be more independent)

we're gonna get a scene of Byler riding a bike with Holly, Holly's gonna have to thirdwheel Mike and Will, good luck to her, Will's gonna spend most of S5 with Mike and they're gonna be a team (jopper parallel) and if Will's boyfriend was gonna be another boy they would've made Will spend most of S5 with that guy so basically Mike's gonna be Will's boyfriend

Pics here

Will's staying at Mike's which would explain the Wheelers adding 2 chairs and it would explain Mike and Will sharing clothes/items and it would explain Will hanging out with Holly, plus the Byers don't have their old house anymore

Now that we know that Will's staying at Mike's house we're gonna get so much domestic content like them sharing clothes/shoes, them sharing Mike's bed, them taking care of Holly together, them kissing, them going to school together .. They're so married

the mlvn make out scene people are talking about is just a kiss at the beginning of s5 which is gonna be their last kiss (a break up kiss?) which is gonna parallel stancy's last kiss in episode 1 s2 before they broke up and Nancy got with Jonathan ,I think they're doing that to compare Byler's first kiss (which is gonna be passionate and desperate) to mlvn's last kiss, also more confirmation that the painting is gonna be really important in both Mike and Will's storylines, a byler got these things confirmed by 2 sources but they said to not worry because this is not bad for Byler, it's actually good for us, production is also trying to keep Byler hidden (they're gonna get together),

Pics here

They're trying to keep Byler hidden because they're gonna date and the painting is gonna be really important to their storylines because that's how they're gonna get together

happy 2 years anniversary to the most obvious foreshadowing ever (making willelmike walk in their love triangle formation and making El walk away from them and picking up the same dead flowers Mike gave her at the airport because their relationship is dead and making Mike stay with Will and putting Byler with other couples and putting them in the center because the're gonna focus on that relationship in s5 and making them breath in sync while the other couples were holding hands, and they made the music pick up while they showed us the couples, Mike and Will are gonna get together in s5)

video of the scene here

so from what we know so far: a guy is gonna hit on Will and Will won't reciprocate, Jonathan hates that guy for hitting on Will and Mike and Will's relationship is gonna be extremely important in s5 and they're gonna be a team, it's kinda obvious what's gonna happen (Mike and Will are gonna get together), what if Will starts dating Chance and starts hanging out with him more to get over Mike and Mike gets mad and jealous about it and they fight about it and then we have another Byler rain fight but this time Mike's the jealous one? btw Jonathan HATES Chance for hitting on Will, he's a Byler shipper fr, pics of the leak here

Mike said he's the only one that CARES about Will because he's in love with him and he said he cares about El because he's trying (and failing) to love her the way he loves Will but when El called him out on him not loving her anymore he got defensive because he's not in love with her ,he's in love with Will and he's gay

Mike only said those things because he thinks El commissioned the painting and he felt like he owed it to El and you can tell that because he only started saying those things after Will said "you're the heart" and they called the soundtrack of the scene "you're the heart" because Mike now thinks the things Will said in the van were from El, in this scene Mike was trying to recreate the shed scene but the difference is no one pushed Mike into saying those things to Will and he didn't repeat any word he heard from others when he spoke to Will, in s5 he's gonna realize Will loves him back and that he lied about the painting and he's gonna kiss him, Mike likes to plagiarize things, pics here

THE OG PARTY IS BACK and so is the Byler height difference <33, Mike and Will being the IT couple in high school <33, Will is sitting in front of Mike during lunch <33 they're gonna be such a cute couple i just know it, they're gonna be the couple who plays footsies under the table, Holly has a gay thing in her room, maybe to support Mike being gay?

only the couples said to each other or about each other that they were "friends" while the actual platonic friends (Dustin and Lucas) never said it because they never felt the need to, and Mike said it about Will while not even knowing that Will is gay and in love with him.. he said it because he was thinking of Will romantically so he said "we're friends, we're friends" to convince himself not Will

the Duffers called Mike and El their E.T and Elliot (which are platonic friends) and the dead flowers El picked up at the end of s4 were the same flowers Mike gave her at the airport, dead flowers represent a dead relationship, hopefully after the break up they'll be able to communicate more and to actually get to know each other and rhat they'll be actual friends, Mike does love El but he loves her platonically even though he's been tryng to force himself into loving her romantically but he can't because he's gay and in love with Will, parallels here

Byler, Jancy and Lumax all held hands in the same episode in s2

Byler's parallels with Jancy: Nancy couldn't love Steve because she's in love with Jonathan, Mike can't love El because he's gay and in love with Will, Nancy talked to Jonathan about Steve on a car after the break up, Mike talked to Will about El on a car after the fight, Jonathan lied and said Steve asked him to bring Nancy home, Will lied about El commissioning the painting, Nancy yelled Jonathan's name in the upside down and he went to save her, Will yelled Mike's name in the upside down and Mike snapped Will out of his episodes

Byler's parallels with Lumax: Mike stayed with Will in the lab, Lucas stayed with Max in the hospital, Will yelled Mike's name during his episode and Mike snapped him out of his episode, Max yelled Lucas' name and Lucas was there for her, they played a song used in a s2 Lumax scene (on the bus) during Mike and Will's heart to heart and used the interruption trope (a romantic trope) in both scenes

Fun fact: they used "heroes" in s3 again but they cut the "and we kissed as though nothing could fall" lyrics that they used in s1 when Mike was hugging his mom and thinking about Will, those lyrics are reserved to Byler and I think they're gonna use this song again during Byler's first kiss, Acid (a leaker) said that Mike's arc in s5 is about self-discovery (which could be Mike understanding who he belongs with, Will) and that he's not gonna try to be normal (straight, Finn said that Mike was trying to be normal in s3 and s4) in s5, plus I think Mike and Will are gonna have another rain fight before the kiss since Shawn Levy hinted at another Byler rain fight, plus s5 is gonna be Will centric and Mike and Will's relationship is gonna be really important in s5

In the first picture Mike is looking at Will (the boy he's in love with) and in the second picture Trevor is looking at Lucky (the girl he has a crush on), Netflix posted this on Instagram

Mike and Will are gonna spend s5 together as a team (Jopper parallel) and their relationship is gonna be really important in s5, also Will is definitely staying at Mike's since he's hanging out with Mike and Holly so much

Mike is filming a lot of scenes with Robin (canon lesbian character) because he's gay, Will is gonna clean his boyfriend's wounds <33, is Robin gonna be Mike and Will's gay mentor and help them get together? i would love that, Mike and Will are sharing two pair of jeans and sharing stuff is a thing for couples

He called El a weapon in s1 and he wanted to send her back to the lab and only changed his mind when he realized she knew where Will was and that she could help him find him, he absolutely DID NOT fall in love with her her at first sight, if he actually loved her he would've chosen a moment where he actually showed that he was in love with her, plus he's gay and in love with Will, He said he fell for El at first sight because he saw Argyle say something similar about Eden and he tried to copy him, he got caught for plagiarizing something at school so it wouldn't be the first time for him doing that, plus he copied what Eddie said about Dustin and said it to El, plus the Duffers said that they don't believe in love at first sight and the first thing Mike said/thought when he first saw El was "that's not Will", he was trying to recreate the shed scene except that in s2 they won and no one lied to him and his words to Will were genuine and sincere while in s4 Will lied to him and made him think El commissioned the painting (which is why he said those things, he didn't know what to say before Will said "you're the heart") and they lost

The actress who plays Suzie ships Byler, Noah and Finn also ship Byler and Brett also ships Byler and Millie ships Byler and the actor who plays younger Henry ships Byler

why did they make Mike say he loved El in s3 and then made him say he forgot he said it and then in s4 he couldn't say it anymore? it makes no sense because he knows El heard him and he just could've just said it again to her face in s3 instead of acting dumb, also in s4 he put the blame on other people instead of on himself and instead of trying to comfort El and he was all defensive and stuff like Nancy when she broke up with Steve, Mike meant it platonically and he's gay

CALEB SAID THEY MADE PLAYLISTS FOR THEIR CHARACTERS, SO STURN (Finn made this playlist) IS ABOUT MIKE AND HE'S GAY (it has lyrics like "it's so easy to lie to myself and pretend that I could love you but I can't" which is about mlvn and "besides I don't want to be the one whose coming out first") which is about Mike wanting Will to come out as gay first because he's scared and it has a song about a milkshake and about how a relationship wasn't built to last (which is also about mlvn since they had milkshakes in s4), and he could also be referring to Mike's bassment beats, which has smalltown boy on it and that song is a gay song about a gay man leaving his homophobic town to find a new life and Finn said he wants Mike to leave Hawkins, or maybe it's the Wheeel playlist, Mike (Wheel)er, Finn made it for Mike, you use the wheel to drive and he put a song called "gay thoughts" in it because Mike is gay

Noah liked a byler edit yesterday (he already knows how the show ends since he's read the last episode script and he knows the endgames, so Mike and Will are gonna date)

Lukas from eyewitness is gay and has internalized homophobia and dated a girl to try and be normal, Mike is gay and has internalized homophobia and he's doing the same thing with El and Lukas has some parallels with Mike

these colors represent El, Will and Mike (i love how Mike is next to his boyfriend instead of in the middle) also i love that Mike wears make up (i have no idea what that thing does), Will is Mike's favorite <33

Will's love interest and boyfriend, they're gonna spend s5 together I can't wait, Mike and Will are still filming together and they're filming the final episodes, they're gonna be a team

Mike thinks he's unlovable but Will loves him like breathing <33, and he makes Mike feel loved instead of insicure and he understands him like no one else could and loves him the way Mike wants to be loved

Mike is wearing Will's clothes again, sharing clothes is a thing for couples

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship, and as it goes on you kinda realize that Will does.. am i allowed to say this?" we already know that Will is in love with Mike, why couldn't he say it? Why is it a spoiler? Because Mike loves him back and he confirmed that Will is still in love with Mike and he's not moving on, reminder that Noah has read the script of the last episode and he knows all the endgames (including Byler)

Mike's monologue made El angry and she knows he was lying to her, does she also know that Mike is gay? She knows Mike doesn't love her in a romantic way even if he tried to in s4

well now that we know that Will is still in love with Mike and that he's not moving on from him.. this leaker basically confirmed that Mike is gonna be Will's boyfriend (they made Will spell "lover" in the words game in the s5 bts pic)

So basically Mike is gonna go on a journey of self-discovery in s5 (accepting that he's gay and in love with Will)

Noah and Finn cried during the final table read , the Duffers said that they put a lot of time in the show to have a proper pay off and the fact that Finn said that the van scene will pay off in the end??

Noah saying: "Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" Cara Buono saying: "Mike goes on his journey in s5" (self discovery, accepting that he's gay and in love with Wll), Millie dodging the monologue question, her becoming a byler after reading the s5 scripts, Noah and Finn both crying at the final table read, Finn saying that the van scene will pay off in the end (the Duffers told him that), the Duffers saying that they put a lot of time in the show to have a proper pay off, Mike and Will sharing clothes and Will's shoes in s5, Finn making that STurn gay playlist about Mike and Caleb confirming that they made s5 playlists for their characters

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship"

"bye Will, see you Will🥰"

THIS MIKE WAS ALREADY IN LOVE WITH WILL :(

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" THIS Mike realized he was in love with Will, this part of the letter matches with Mike's thoughts so well, he wants things to go back to how they were in s2 when things weren't awkward and he didn't know he was in love with Will

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" THEY'RE IN LOVE

"only love makes you that crazy sweetheart"

"crazy together"

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" THIS Mike was already in love with Will and he thought he lost him forever without being able to confess to him :(

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" this scene was always supposed to have romantic undertones because they're in love with each other

them playing "every smile you fake" while Will was faking a smile while dancing with a girl (he's canonically in love with Mike) them playing "and we kissed as though nothing could fall" while Mike hugging his mom while thinking about Will (because he's in love with Will), them using these lyrics was intentional

Karen Wheeler wanted to read lines for Joyce's play with Patty so she could kiss her, she's bisexual, she's queer like Mike

Byler looking at each other's lips <33 also Mike noticed something was wrong with Will before Will touched his neck because he was already looking at Will instead of watching the movie <33 i love the Byler and Lumax double date sm and Mike being a protective and worried boyfriend over Will

happy 7 years of this scene which was basically a love confession <33 in "st the first shadow" Henry was possessed by the Mindflayer (like Will) and Patty used the "power of love" (like Mike) to help Henry, and Will used the hand Mike held to communicate to the others to close the gate so basically gay love saved Hawkins <33

Mike has all the things he loves the most in his room, a wizard (Will) and buff men <33, and a buff male dragon for some reasons and he has Will's drawings in his room

the Duffers put "the Birdcage" on the s4 DNA board which is about a GAY MAN pretending to be straight in the same season where Finn said that Mike was trying to be as NORMAL as possible and where he was acting awkward around Will and in the season where he kept staring at Will's lips and where they played a song called "in the closet at rink o mania" when the camera panned to Mike and he started talking again", the closet is thin air atp, he's so gay

in s5 Mike is gonna go on a journey of self-discovery (accepting that he's gay and in love with Will),and he's not gonna try to be normal anymore Finn said that Mike was trying to be normal in s3 and s4 (he was trying to be straight), "he might be into some new things" (men), dnd is not new for him so the Hellfire Club was not new for him, the word "normal" has only been associated to the queer characters of st

the fact that Mike was trying to make things less gay but he made it gayer by acting weird around his "best friend" who he has "no feelings" for... like all Will wanted was a hug from his best friend of a decade.. homotron 7000 can't even hug his "best friend" anymore who may i remind you has NO IDEA WIll is gay and literally thought Will had a crush on a girl and made the painting for her and Mike got jealous and petty about it... oh and in s2 and s3 he had no problems with hugging Will or being physical with him..

if it was because they drifted away they would've made Will act awkward around Mike too but they didn't, It was confirmed by Finn twice that Mike has no idea Will is gay and he thought Will had a crush on a girl so why was he acting like that? Cuz he was jealous of the girl and gay panicking about Will's glow up

Mike uses his Will voice in Dustin's book and he's afraid of losing Will (and El), Dustin mentions all the things in his healthy relationship with Suzie (like having things in common and being honest with each other) and Mike can't relate to that (they spent s3 and s4 lying to each other) and he doesn't know what to talk to El about, this book was made by a professional writer who's a Byler shipper

in s2 in the shed scene they showed Byler while the lyrics said "if you say that you are mine" "i'll be here till the end of time" , they're the only fully romantic lyrics in the song

THIS was Mike's pov not Will's which is why Will is blurred out but after this Mike turns to Will and he looks happy but then Mike looks back at El and he looks sad and i think there are 2 reasons for that

1 he was scared of how El would react to the truth (he's gay and in love with Will)

2 he was trying to make Will jealous (cuz he knew Will was in love with him during that moment) but then he noticed that it didn't work and he got sad about it, at the airport he was also trying to make Will jealous by kissing El's cheek after he learned that Angela would be at rink o mania (and he thought Will had a crush on Angela), the parallels with Rovickie were intentional cuz we're gonna have 2 queer couples instead of one

they called the van scene the most heartfelt scene in s4? heartfelt means: from the heart, sincere, genuine, which means Mike lied during the monologue cuz they could've called that scene the most heartfelt scene of s4 but they didn't

Holly is gonna go missing but at least Mike and Will are gonna look for her together in the upside down <33 (and maybe that's where they're gonna confess and kiss?), they posted Byler, Jancy and Jopper for st day (and Robin and Vickie's chairs)

maybe we'll get a Byler rain kiss? because in August Noah posted a picture of Byler and a bts picture of him sitting on a chair wrapped in a towel and Shawn acknowledged a post that said that they wanted another angsty Byler scene like the s3 rain fight, hopefully they'll play heroes during Byler's first kiss

Mike said "I didn't know what to say" about his fight with El as if she wasn't literally begging him to say the words "I love you" AND Mike relating and nodding to Will saying "what if they don't like the truth?" Why wouldn't El like Mike "loving" her? She literally heard Mike saying it in s3 and she liked it, so why was Mike so scared of the truth? Because he's gay and in love with Will and he has abandonment issues AND internalized homophobia and he's depressed, the El scene has another meaning behind it: Nina waiting for her lover to come back but he doesn't come back and Nina leaving the station= Mike not being able to love El the way she wants to be loved and her breaking up with Mike in s5 (tho i think it will be a mutual break up)

in s4 Mike bit his lip while checking Will out, because he's gay and in love with Will

Mike listened to his boyfriend's heart in s1, he was so happy to see Will<3, I hope we'll get a scene where Will listens to Mike's heart instead, maybe while they're cuddling in s5?

[kandyzee]

So gonna be ranting about this mf on twitter

Major Ian gallagher defence coming.

OKAH FIRST Ian 100% deserves mickey the same way mickey deserves Ian. When mickey is first introduced he is a homophobic closet case with no support system by the end of the show he is happily married to his fucking high-school sweetheart with his own apartment in a nice area and he has his own business. HE HAS ALL OF THAT BECAUSE OF IAN. Ian became mickeys support system and was always pushing him to become a better person. He shows mickey that he's not 'fucked for life' and he trys his hardest to protect him. Even if the way Ian did it , he got mickey to come out. Mickey needed that push. U think he would have come out if he didn't have someone he loves telling him to?

Now the cheating. The only time Ian cheats on mickey is during his manic episode in s4/5 AND HE GOT HELP AFTER. It's crazy to me that people don't think Ian regrets that and seriously use it as a reason to hate Ian. U better hate fiona and Debbie and Lip too. Yk what better hate mickey too cause he did have a wife and boyfriend (this is a joke don't kill me)

Ian not signing the marriage papers is upsetting but it's not hard to understand why he did it. Ian grew up around frank and Monica , his main representation of marriage is an absolute shit show. He's scared of turning his relationship with the man he loves into that. This is an expected fear from Ian given his worries about being like his mum. He doesn't want to complicate things. And he talks to mickey about this. Ian not signing isn't him being horrible it's his way of trying to protect mickey from himself because he loves mick.

And Ian is always trying to protect mickey, he backs him up in fights, when mickey breaks out of prison he doesn't go to the cops, he breaks up with mickey when he thinks their relationship is hurting him, he tells lip "hit my husband again and I'll fucking kill you". CLEARLY PROTECTIVE.

I don't have ss but mf was also like "Ian laughs at mickey being raped" so talking about that now.

The first time Ian "laughs at him" is in s3 when he tries to talk to mickey right after it happens. I don't think it takes a genius to know that Ian was trying to lighten the mood, not laugh AT mickey. He was also traumatised when Terry catching them happened. He laughs nervously because he has no clue how to navigate a situation like that at such a young age. He's a child making a badly timed, uncomfortable joke because he watched something terrible happen.

The second time Ian does this is with Caleb. During his relationship with caleb, Ian tries to convince himself that mickey was bad for him a few times. Making yourself hate someone is a lot easier than accepting the fact that they are gone. He shouldn't be telling someone he basically just met about that, but in his defence, he's talking about something he probably feels happened to him as well. Ian is affected by all that happened with mickey, and it makes sense that he tells people. In the same way, it would make sense for svetlana to tell people about the day it does for Ian too. All 3 are victims of Terry. Ian also has people telling him how bad mickey is all the time (mainly fiona tbh what if her problem with the milkovichs ) so he's trying to believe that, a easy way to do that is get validation from someone who hasn't been been around mickey. Caleb has never met mick, he has no reason to try defend him. I also don't really think what Ian was saying was making fun of mickey, it's not nice but yk?

This is getting long omg

On him being ugly

UGLY?!?!?

Cameron monaghan is GORGEOUS. He is the definition of cutie pie AND fine as fuck.

When mickey punches Ian because he didn't sign the marriage papers, HE DID NOT HAVE IT COMING. No one deserves to be hit by their partner. I mean, Jesus crist mickey literally broke his leg. His is probably the worst aspect of their relationship by that I mean the violence. A lot of it is playful, but it's not always healthy. Mickey was understandably upset but he shouldn't have hit Ian.

Okayyy now the hall of shame stuff. To me, that shit doesn't count cause Ian and mickey both act kinda out of character. I really don't like Ian saying that, and he shouldn't, but it's hardly a reason for Ian not to deserve mick. 87% is still the majority of his heart, and Ian wasn't saying he doesn't love mickey. Also acting like mickey hasn't said worst things.

"Ur nothing but a warm mouth to me"

"better than going off and having another bipolar episode"

LAST THING. Yes, mickey sacrifices a lot for Ian, like when he goes to prison for him, but not everyone shows love through large reckless actions. You shouldn't expect Ian to give things up to prove he loves mickey. Sacrifice isn't the only way to show affection. U can do it through words or gifts or quality time. Ian shows his love a lot through words, like when he tells mickey, "we have nothing to be ashamed of" early as s2. He makes him feel better when mickey is scared he would be a bad dad.

Ian gallagher haters are DUMB . Some people shouldn't be allowed to watch shameless cause how can u be so small-minded. People who say 1 of them doesn't deserve the other are just aggravating. Gallavich has a lot of ups and downs, and its part of what makes them so appealing. Despite all the bad things they go through, they always love and fight for each other.

Rant over

[lunar-years]

what tswift (or others) define the ot3/the legs of the ot3? i think renegade is a v. s2 roy keeley song!

YESSSS renegade is THE roykeeley s2 song to me. It is so perfect. I also think it works for the larger ot3 as well.

Anyway this is such a fun question and something I have already thought about at length because, well, I am me 😂 Here's my playlist (with a few bonus songs from other artists):

JamieKeeley

Now That We Don't Talk - This is post-breakup s2 jamiekeeley when they've grown distanced from one another and they only hear about one another through the press/Keeley is watching from the outside as Jamie burns his life up on Lust Conquers All. The "You part the crowd like the Red Sea, don't even get me started / Did you get anxious though, on the way home?" line is sooooo them, because they know one another beyond their public images and can see past the facade.

Gorgeous - they're both gorgeous people <3 enough said, really. But yeah this gives me biggg early relationship vibes when they first meet at a club or agency party or what have you. :)

Lunar Years (Maisie Peters) - I have had in my head the vague outline of a relationship-spanning jamiekeeley fic titled after this song for like 2 years lmao. lord knows if it will ever see the light of day. But this is my VERY favorite jamiekeeley song. It's about breaking up and getting along better for it afterward, but still sort of being in love, and EVERY LINE is about them my god. fav: "I'm a nicer person now I'm not your person, funny how that works, and funny that we're working now"

RoyKeeley

Renegade - (ultimate roykeeley song)

Everything Has Changed - s1 roykeeley. "Dust off your highest hopes" is sooo applicable to them because before getting together they both have kind of resigned themselves to meaningless relationships (Keeley) or no relationships (Roy) because they assume that love like that is unattainable for them. Then they get together and everything changes, and for both of them it's kind of their first truly serious, life-altering relationship. ahhhhhh!!

My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys - breakup RoyKeeley from Keeley's pov :( "the voices in his head called the rain to end our days of wild" "saw forever so he smashed it up" "I'll tell you that he runs because he loves me" "I felt more when we played pretend than with all the kens" wow i'm so sad.

How Did It End? - this is also about RoyKeeley's breakup and dealing with the fallout of a very public relationship with an undefinable/hard to explain ending. The reaction we see at the club of the team finding out has got to be just like...the tip of the iceberg :( Everyone they know wants to know Why this seemingly perfect couple broke up and Roy and Keeley can't even explain because they (well, Keeley in particular) still don't understand it themselves.

RoyJamie

I Can See You - This is the s2/s3 unresolved sexual tension royjamie song. they want to get it on soooo bad. soooo bad!! nobody can ever find out about that tho. obviously. 🤪 "I've been watching you for ages and I spend my time trying not to feel it"

invisible string - idk the soulmatism is so strong with these two tbh. Like, it's literally off the charts. something something the signed poster on Jamie's wall. 69. all along there was some invisible string tying you to me wasn't there!!

OT3:

cowboy like me - they get each other on a really deep level because they match each other's freak :) and they all have anxiety about forever but ultimately decide it's worth the risk for each other. "and the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up"

delicate - to me this song is perfect for the beginning of their relationship when they aren't out or public and they all are trying sooo hard to hold on to this precious thing with one another because they know it means more than anything that's come before and they don't want to f it up again.

Long Story Short - it took them a long ass time to individually get their shit together and then all be on the same page as a unit, but they got there eventually! ❤️

Mastermind - Jamie literally masterminded the three of them oh my god. posters on the wall part 2. "What if i told you none of it was accidental, and the first time that I saw you, I knew I wanted your body." I mean, YEAH.

Shade of Yellow (Griff) - Okay, so this is my current favorite rjk song. it's soooo soft and simple and beautiful. their home is where the others are. they are one another's comfort and peace. i'm crying. "there's a light in your room and it burns like a shade of yellow / And it makes me feel sane in the head and I swear that's rare these days"

Isimo (Bleachers) - something something emerging out of your damaged past to a bright future with people who love you and are willing to help you carry the load. realizing you've survived. "I'd follow you down down down down to the water, way down to any kind of chance"

[readreactrant]

Hello.... If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them...Thanks if you want to answer....

Thanks for the ask and damn I'm always so excited when it comes to these so ofc I don't mind, also warning I'm about to kinda go off. It's a pretty long list so I'll only talk about the ones that left the biggest impression on me.

Warning for mentions of twincest, incest and age gaps.

Starting off with the ship that indoctrinated me into the bl life style *drumroll*

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter (aka Drarry); enemies/rivals to lovers, blond x ravenette, they basically set the precedent for every ship I pick up like a stray cat these days.

Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku (Bakudeku): Enemies to lovers, plus constantly on each other's mind as a motivation in one way or the other. I love them so much.

Mikage Reo/Nagi Seishiro (NagiReo): one of my current hyperfixations, mainly cuz they're one of the few ships I have that wasn't introduced as rivals from the start as well as being extremely close canonically. They click so well despite their miscommunication (more like no communication but I'll probably get to that another day).

Gojo Saturou/Itadori Yuuji (GoYuu): Most of my blog will you a clue already lol.

Sukuna/Itadori Yuuji (SukuIta): Number one toxic ship rn, but would you believe I prefer their siblings falling in forbidden love trope?

Mikaela Hyakuya/Yuuichiro Hyakuya (MikaYuu): Found family lovers that will give anything for each other? Sign me up.

Tyki Milk/Allen Walker: I walked into the D.gray man fandom late and I will never not regret it, I need more people that at least know who they are (〒﹏〒)

Eren Jeager/Armin Arlet & Eren Jaeger/Levi Ackerman (Eremin & Ereri): Getting these two out of the way at the same time cuz while I think Eren is undeniably his best self a lot with Armin, I love the thought of Levi being there as his inspiration.

Itoshi Rin/Itoshi Sae: Their beef is adorable but they need to fuck.

Roy Mustang/Edward Elric: I love their banter and they've both been through way too much together.

Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent (Superbat): one is batman the other is superman...Need I say more?

Dick Grayson/Tim Drake: I watched Titans and they had me.

Luka/Adrian (Lukachat): I stopped watch Miraculous at like S3 but these two are the only salvageable treasure from that mess to me.

Sherlock Holmes/William James Moriarty (Sherliam): From Moriarty the Patriot not any other adaptations please. There was that one movie tho. I love how they're constantly teasing and trying to outsmart each other like yeah babes, burn that city down to get his attention.

Kageyama Tobio/Hinata Shoyo (Kagehina): I haven't finished Haikyuu S2, spare me.

Kagami Taiga/Kuroko Tetsuya: what's with sports anime and K names, that aside, I don't know but their separation leaves me in tears everytime.

Yukio Okumura/Rin Okumura: Rin cares so much, Yukio stop being a yandere you closeted brocon! I know you!!!

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji: I have a thing for broody possessive tops and oblivious bottoms and they were my awakening.

Hideyoshi Nagachika/Ken Kaneki (Hidekane): Receiving Tokyo ghoul spoilers of how things ended kept from finishing the show or starting the manga, what even is the point .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

Draken/Mikey/Takemichi & Draken/Mikey: DraMiTake is something I'd consume if I find it cuz I read this one precious fic I will forever cherise but DraMikey has way too much angst potential on its own. Tugs my heart to know Draken keeps Mikey grounded.

Baji Keisuke/Chifuyu Matsuno: Kazutora I will never fucking forgive you.

Hanma shuji/Kisaki Tetta: psychotic boyfriends, we love to see it (✿ ♡‿♡)

Reinhard Van Astrea/Natsuki Subaru: They are literally my banner plus he's one of the few people that doesn't give Subaru a hard time (I only watched S1)

Sebastian Michaelis/Ciel Phantomhive: Butler x master, what else do I need to add. I do absolutely adore the thought of Sebastian being cheeky when putting his young master in his place. I also love soft Sebastian, go figure.

Carnegie/Jonathan Sterling: No one remembers Darkside so I won't even dive into it. These two are the reason I'm trying to finish the series right now, book girlies, read Darkside by Tom Becker and come find me please ಥ‿ಥ

Dante/Vergil: It just makes sense ngl.

If you made it this far...why did you lollll, but honestly thanks for reading, talking about ships is one of my things and be free to ask again if you want me to expand upon or analyze any of these, that or if you just want recs. I'm down for anything.

[demadogs]

what is your genuine opinion on byler rn do you think they're actually gonna be endgame? I doubt all the time this show has never been great when it comes to their queer characters

i completely believe its gonna happen for so many reasons but ill just tell you a few big ones.

will canonically loves mike. i cannot think of a single other fictional media where someone was revealed to be in love with someone else THIS far into the story and it ended up being unrequited. when stories are written about an unrequited crush and how they move on, they reveal that crush early on so we can see their character development over the course of the story. but with only one season left they missed the opportunity to tell the story that way. if they wanted will to just have a crush on mike and then find someone else, we wouldve known about his feelings probably by season 2.

they showed the worst of mike and el’s relationship in the same season that they revealed wills feelings. those two dont just happen simultaneously if its for nothing.

THEY ARE SO VERY CAPABLE OF WRITING AN ADORABLE AMAZING REAL COUPLE WHO LOVE EACH OTHER!!!!!!! SO WHY ON EARTH WOULD THEY CHOOSE NOT TO WRITE THAT FOR THE CENTRAL COUPLE OF THE SHOW IF THEYRE ENDGAME????!!! i would eat mlvn up if they wrote it in the dynamic of lumax but instead they had him struggle for literally HALF THE SHOW to tell her he loves her. and we see how painful it is for both of them to maintain the relationship.

mike suddenly becoming an asshole and the audience having no insight as to why hes treating el or will the way he is. mike was a lot of peoples favorite characters in s1 and 2 and then in s3 he was kinda a bitch. he lied to el instead of just telling her about hopper and then the rain fight with will. and this continues in s4 and gets even worse, especially with el. if the reason for this isnt internalized homophobia then its just a genuine plothole in the story and character development.

the lack of finn/noah interviews. this is mad suspicious. they are in almost every scene together this season and theres definitely stuff to talk about relating to their characters but they chose to separate both of them and not let them answer any of those questions together. but for the other “will they/wont they” couple, stancy, those cast members were often paired together (with maya and joseph but still). i also think its interesting that theres barely any finn and millie interviews from this season as well. i dont think theyre as strictly separated as finn and noah but most of millies press is either alone or with noah.

some honorable mentions:

perfectly framed mike in a closet during the mlvn kiss at the end of s3

the one way sign to the closet while hes reading her letter

track called “in the closet” playing over MIKE talking, not will

track “on the bus”, which played for lumax’s first romantically coded scene, playing during a byler scene

how mike and els breakup in s3 was shot compared to the rain fight (colorful, sunny, whole party watching, and comedic vs dark blue, pouring, alone, and emotional)

zero closure or insight on els thoughts of the monologue

first season that doesnt end with a mlvn kiss

and like ya know theres all these too

[aemiron-main]

mike’s conan poster and his gayness

tinfoil hat time

staring directly at the Conan the Barbarian poster in mike’s room with the context that Conan’s story might have undertones regarding “repressed homosexuality” and the fact that the poster is right next to a lamp (Will, who is associated with lamps but is also framed as mike’s light throughout s4)

with conan, the idea of repressed homosexuality seems to be tied to imagery about beefy mens’ bodies. so beefy dudes = repressed homosexuality. well. what’s right near the conan poster in mike’s room? a beefy dragon poster. which is also next to the ‘one way’ sign into the closet. 

also I haven’t seen the Conan movie (the above quote refers to the book) but apparently there’s a gay character in Conan and conan kills him and then puts on the gay guy’s clothes?? Just like how Mike is putting on clothes in this scene.  Putting on the hellfire shirt specifically (and I have a Lot to say in my gay Mike analysis about the links between hellfire and queerness), Mike, like Conan, putting on the clothes of a gay man that he killed/thinks he killed (the part of himself that likes dnd and hellfire is also the gay part, mike trying to ‘kill himself’/kill that part of himself as a gay guy like not actually kill himself but instead kill that part of himself by being in the closet and repressing it and trying to act ‘normal’ esp since imo in s4/the end of s3 he’s had some realizations about being gay).  Also worth noting that apparently the gay guy in Conan is literally part of an evil cult (hellfire parallel much??) Idk if this makes sense but like. mike is both Conan and the gay guy, trying to be Conan and kill that part of himself and put on the gay guy’s clothes (clothes that are associated with hellfire which is associated with queerness and seemingly parallels the evil cult in Conan) but in reality, he’s also the gay guy who got killed. Forced conformity is killing the kids: mike is trying to kill that gay part of himself because he has to conform/be ‘normal’.  But if mike is putting on the clothes of a gay guy that he metaphorically killed/is repressing (the hellfire clothes), then why is he still involved in hellfire and excited about it?  Because just like how conan puts on the clothes of the gay guy after killing him, Mike puts on the gay clothes/hellfire as a sign of having ‘killed’ that part of himself, the gay part of himself, but still embraces the clothes/hellfire just like how conan killed the gay man but still wears the gay dude’s clothes. Mike is able to embrace hellfire (to an extent) because he has realized that he will never BE ‘normal’. He’s trying to ACT normal in some regards (see: lenora), but his realization that he will never BE ‘normal’ has given him some degree of freedom to embrace nerdy/weird things like hellfire, but he’s still not quite at the stage of embracing his sexuality, just like how even though Mike is into hellfire, hellfire itself becomes villainized and seen as a cult, which pushes Mike into a position of needing to decide whether he’s still going to align with hellfire (come out as gay regardless of the hatred he may receive) or if he’s going to act as if he was never involved (stay in the closet and continue to try and ‘act’ normal). The only issue with that is that mike doesn’t ACTUALLY have that choice: people like jason’s gang already know he’s involved with hellfire, even if he doesn’t know that they know. (ie, people are already starting to realize that mike is gay/queer/suspecting it because of how hellfire works as an allegory for queerness/gay mike specifically and the satanic panic vs the aids crisis, especially since in the hospital in s4, mike is positioned right in front of a ‘donate blood’ poster in max’s hospital room but then moves away from it towards will- gay men being unable to donate blood due to the rhetoric surrounding aids crisis, mike physically moves away from the poster towards will (towards gayness) because he can’t donate blood as a gay man in the 80s). He also can’t continue to ‘act’ normal because it’s absolutely fucking failed for him and makes him seem MORE abornal (see: airport scene, rink o mania, mike’s monologue, especially the fact that the monologue failed, forced conformity is killing the kids).  I’m going to talk about this in my gay mike analysis, but Mike is beginning to experience external homophobia in the way that Will typically has that Mike hasnt- as Mike comes to terms with being gay and that he can’t change it, he also becomes more aware of the homophobic rhetoric around him. (the aids crisis rhetoric, villainizing of the hellfire club, him talking about ‘bullshit media propaganda’ etc). 

[admirablespoling]

Not sure how I went from casual Stranger Things fan to Byler truther literally overnight but here I am to give my take as a once-casual viewer.

I never really looked into any of the subtext in the show until early s4 when I had a come to Jesus moment. I rewatched seasons 1-3 recently so I think having the whole story fresh in my mind helped me see the truth a little more clearly than many other casual viewers. ANYWAY.

In seasons 1 and 2 I could tell that Will and Mike were extremely close, but I never really looked at it as anything more because they were still little to me and Mike seemed to be innocently interested in El.

Season 3 was when I started feeling a shift in my perspective, but only somewhat. I was torn between “Mike is just a stupid teen boy and Will misses his friend” and “wait, do these two like each other?” But again, I didn’t look too much into it because it wasn’t BLATANTLY OBVIOUS to me at the time that these boys are more than friends.

In comes season 4. I literally immediately knew that there was something going on. As soon as Mike gave Will the bro tap I thought “wait, MIKE? Crying while confessing that becoming your friend was the best thing I have ever done MIKE is brushing off his bestie that he went to the ends of the earth to save?” As the season went on, I just knew I was not delusional and that I was literally witnessing these boys pining for each other, so I decided to do some digging around to see what was out there on this topic. That’s how I ended up here. I’ve read the Google docs, the analyses, etc. and all of it just makes so much sense. I truly, 100% believe that Byler was always meant to be endgame. This show spends a LOT of time developing their relationship and it’s not for nothing. It’s honestly beautiful and pure and makes me want to cry. I don’t know how I was so blind all these years, but holy shit, the DB are good…they are really good. They had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

The proof that stands out to me the most:

-Mike’s shadow is basically an open closet. That last s3 kiss in Will’s room + Mike’s one way sign in s4… cmon, they are basically shouting Mike’s next big arc to us in the last few(s3)/first few(s4) minutes. This is absolutely, positively on purpose and it’s honestly brilliant foreshadowing.

-Mike and Will are basically attached at the hip. Even after their dramatic argument in the rain in s3 which is never fully resolved, they are quite often within a foot of each other. Even while Mike is dating El. They are both very comfortable being up on each other until Mike’s airport stunt in s4, but it all comes back after Mike lets his guard down and becomes mush for Will again. The shootout starts, and they basically cling to each other. They are also both totes cool with Will holding Mike’s hand over the payphone. I could go on but if you get it, you get it. These two are COMFY together

-“We’re friends, we’re friends” We know, babes. Do you? This line feels suspiciously similar to “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” in that they both come up in arguments where Will calls Mike out for pulling away from him. Mike is supposed to be oblivious to Will’s crush so…who is Mike really trying to convince?

-Will’s drawings El has lots of Mike reminders in her rooms in s3 + s4. Mike has no visible El items, but Will drawings are permanent fixtures in his basement. I don’t think Mike even thinks twice about it, he just cherishes those effing drawings. (So sweet) Then Will painted something for him that Mike likely thought was for a girl…I’m…I’m going to cry. Bet that gets added to the wall before Mike’s bags are even unpacked.

-Where is Mike’s attention really? Mike acted like he wasn’t giving Will any mind when he arrived in Cali but then called out his eye rolling, moping etc. Did Will have your attention, or nah, Mike? Will seemed to feel genuinely hurt by Mike’s words and Mike picked up on that. He soon gave a genuine apology, something that he only ever consistently offers Will.

-speaking of the apology, that shit was FLIRTY. Mike didn’t have to force it, he just said what he was thinking and Will looked like he felt so validated. They both smiled and looked so happy to be back on good terms and ugh it was just the sweetest thing. Their connection is effortless and only wavers when Mike panics + Will feels ignored. This did not feel the slightest bit platonic. Zero percent.

-the triple take. Like, come on. A TRIPLE take?? Mike, baby, it’s gonna be ok. Will loves you, too. This shot was one of the most blatant indicators of Mike’s internal struggle in s4 IMO

-season 4 arcs Mike’s arc with El and his arc with Will are happening at the same time. That is because they are the same arc. This should be setting alarm bells off in general audience heads but I know that many people cannot seem to connect the damn dots still. They. Love. Each. Other.

Anyway…you’ve converted me. I wanted to put my two cents in as someone who has only fairly recently caught on to validate that you guys who have seen it for years are NOT delusional, you are doing the Lord’s work by compiling all of the data that us normies are too dense to see. Long live Byler!

[kaypeace21]

Stranger things & Door symbolism (narrative analysis)

We see doors have a lot of symbolism and different meanings but to a certain extent it’s about respecting/not respecting boundaries &privacy, and being open or closed to others emotionally.

In s2 Max picks the door of the av club (trying to easedrop on the boys)-and it goes wrong (and causes dart to escape). Similarly, in s1 Karen picks Nancy’s bedroom door lock (and Nancy does not open up to her emotionally despite Karen saying “you can talk to me”). BUT in s3, we see Karen contemplating picking Nancy’s door again-and right after she decides not to try and pick the lock and respect Nancy’s boundaries (Nancy finally opens up the door and herself emotionally to Karen).We even  see Jonathan in s1 pick Lonnie’s car door (which we know is not a healthy dynamic).

Nancy also tries telling Jonathan not to break into Lonnie’s car-similar to Jonathan trying to convince Nancy (in s3e3) not to break into mrs. Drsicol’s via opening the front door.

We also see because jonathan doesn’t respect Lonnie (can’t blame him). So,Jonathan walks in uninvited through Lonnie’s front door -to investigate-similar to what Nancy did to mrs. Driscoll in s3 . These prior examples are also similar to El  breaking into Heather’s house  by using her telekenesis to unlock the front door (for her and Max’s investigation) . Or doing the same thing to Becky in s2 (for her solo investigation ). Why we have a shot of just El, Nancy, and Jonathan peaking through the doorway.

El unlocking latches also mirrors how the demogorgan ALSO used telekenesis to unlock the front door latch of Will’s house .

In fact flayed Bruce attacking j*ncy in s3, mirrors Will first being attacked by the demogorgan in s1. Jonathan & Will both lock the doors- than Nancy & Will try calling for help- but the supernatural creature unlocks their latches and both Nancy & Will drop the phones because of this.

we also see through every season-given El’s upbringing- El doesn’t respect  boundaries with doors -since she never received it with Brenner (who would come into room whenever he pleased/closed the door and threw her in solitary) .in s2-3 she uses her powers to pick/UNLOCK doors -to open them . And in s1 she used her powers to LOCK a door- and forcibly CLOSE the door to trap the boys in the room  (akin to the closed door in solitary).

This scene directly contrasts an earlier scene of Mike respecting El wanting the door open -by having El later NOT respect the boys’ desire for the door to be open . Mike asks if she wants the door closed and she says “no” so he lets it be open. When Lucas tries to open the closed door- she closes it and says “no”. (she had other in universe reasons for doing this- but this scene is later also paralleled to Hopper in s3 locking Mike in the car against his will, when he tried leaving. Similar to el closing the door on Lucas in s1 when he tried leaving.

In s1 (with El’s ptsd and) with El not understand privacy- she wants her door open . But in s2 when wanting privacy she closes her bedroom door (as Hopper demands she open it, and she cries). in s3 she also closes her door (now wanting privacy) when kissing Mike/ being on the phone with Mike/ hanging with Max ( and Hopper again yells at her to open the closed door).  Max even criticizes Hopper by saying   “do you knock? JEEZE”And in s3 flayed Billy yells at El and co to “OPEN the g*ddamn door”. In s2/3 we also see Hopper yell for el/Murray to ‘OPEN the damn door’  (despite murray having a “keep door CLOSED”sign).

*flayed-Billy also smashes the glass on the door to try and unlock the door-similar to flayed Bruce at the hospital.

And In s2 we see Neil tell Billy to  “open the door” . In fact the first word uttered after the door is opened, is by Billy -who says “what’s wrong?”. The same thing occurs when Hopper in s3 says to “open the door” -the door opens and Mike says  “what’s wrong?” (as another parallel) .

The Byers also in opposition to this, respect doors/boundaries of Will’s: 

Will (similar to Muray’s sign) has a “no trespassing” sign on his front door in s1 (also akin to the one at Hawkins’s lab). And when Will rides by the Hawkins sign- what happens, he’s chased by the demogorgan. But Jonathan and joyce respect Will’s sign/boundaries- Jonathan knocking on Will’s DOOR in s2 before entering & Joyce ringing castle byer’s DOORbell (and getting verbal permission) before entering in s1.

However, Jonathan doesn’t respect Lonnie :

so walks in uninvited through the door ,break into Lonnie’s car, and opens Lonnie’s trunk (door) without permission. later jonathan gets angry the cops/ Hopper searched his trunk (without permission) . Sort of matching his later hypocrisy of being ok to break into Lonnie’s car but not mrs. driscoll’s house.

of course - this is because Lonnie doesn’t respect jonathan’s boundaries. again- the demogorgan is called “the deep father” in d&d. And a light-bulb is shown in Lonnie’s shed when it attacks Will. So we see Lonnie behind an open door (of Jonathan’s room) and a single lightbulb. A single red light bulb is shown -when Jonathan doesn’t respect others boundaries and develops photos. Later when the demogorgan is in Jonathan’s house- Jonathan hides in Will’s room and the ‘keep trespassing’ sign FALLS OFF the door - when the demogorgan comes near. And again we had a shot of Lonnie next to the ‘no trespassing sign’ too.

So how does this relate to romance?  Or the supernatural?

For romance

Well what does Nancy do in s3 (unlike Karen in s3)? Well she not once, not twice but 3 times- opens jonathan’s door (despite the sign saying “please,do not  enter” (when red light is on). which is similar to Will’s “no trespassing “ /murray’s “keep door closed” sign).This is despite jonathan telling her not to-over and over. We see the first time she enters and he tells her this- she says “sorry”, but after she rolls her eyes  (and than later she does it 2 more times-showing she’s not actually sorry). It shows a lack of respect for her partner and his photography (light destroys his photos). This is similar to Jonathan busting into Lonnie’s. Or El -not respecting doors in every season (and spying on her bf who in s3 was not happy about this).

Which is one of the reasons j*ncy & m*leven were (verbally) paralleled specifically in s3 .Both pairings have no trust in boundaries/privacy- Jonathan taking those pics in s1 vi*lated Nancy’s boundaries/privacy, Nancy in s3 ruins jonathan’s photos while disrespecting his boundaries,El spies on Mike in s2-3 and says she makes her own rules-and doesn’t care if it made Mike uncomfortable.

We even have in s3e3-nancy & El break into people’s houses via the front door (to show how similar they are). 

This also correlates to my other post- where I talked about the theme of spying on love interests being done by many characters too (Jonathan to Nancy in s1,s2 lucas spying on Max, max on lucas in s3, steve and rando-girl who rejected him in s3. El in s2-3 to Mike.And  on the nonromantic end -the mf /the us gov spying on our heroes, El in s1 being trained to be a spy, karen spying on Mike in s3 via phones, similar to how the government agents in s1 monitored phone calls,etc. The snowball even had  l*max/ m*leven (who that season spied on eachother ) dance to a song about a st*lking ex- while the spying mf watched them as well).

Also as another romantic contrast to doors in s3:

Mike throws El in his closet (gay ref) and closes the door (to his real emotions ). As Karen says to Mike “talk to me’ about Will  (similar to Karen saying to Nancy  “talk to me” in s1 ) .And she says to Mike “I never want you to HIDE anything from me.” (which he literally is doing). 

 Similar to Nancy ins1 who’s door was closed (to symbolize being emotionally closed off from her mom -it signifies he wouldn’t open up to Karen in s1 about Will (cause he’s too occupied CLOSING his CLOSET door for EL- and pretending to be straight). 

Than in s3e1 during m*leven kiss it pans to a the rainbow drawing (which says Mike) & a drawing of Will the wise as the lyrics “just a little more time will open closing doors”plays. After this, at Will’s house in s3e1 ( while Will claims he won’t fall in love) you hear the lyrics in the back ironically  play  “Love that was new to you-you open up the door.” Like - go back to episode 1 -it’s true. After Joyce says ‘ok;- the song gets much louder just for the lyric “you open up the door”.XD I’m not making this sh*t up (they purposely didn’t subtitle the segment panned to Will but it’s clear as day) ! The other song Mike kisses El to in ep 1 is ‘can’t fight this feeling’ (which is about a guy afraid to tell his friend of many years that he loves them-but who is afraid to do so and ruin their platonic relationship- which doesn’t fit m*leven who kissed in less than a week . the song lyric also has the phrase “if i have to ...come crashing through your door, baby I can’t fight this feeling anymore.” XD Than after “time” (3 months/last ep of s3) El kisses Mike- infront of WILL’S OPEN CLOSET door, in Will’s room, while El holds Will’s bear that comes between them. El (similar to Karen’s closet scene) even tries to get Mike to talk about his “feelings” which he avoids doing with El (/ Karen). As mike doesn’t open up to El emotionally he also doesn’t reciprocate the kiss- or say i love you back-and the same song (’the first i love you’) which played when, in s3 ,Robin rejected steve cause she’s gay- plays. And both stobin/mileven s3 confessions also heavily parallel . I mean coming out as gay used to be called “coming out of the closet”...

The supernatural: Doors & upsidedown- “ A doorway between worlds”

Murray ,in s3, (translating for Alexi) calls the gate a “doorway between worlds”. While Mr clarke also calls it a “doorway” and discusses Hugh everete’s “many worlds” theory. So later when NOT respecting Mr.clarke’s boundaries and interrupting his date - Dustin says about the supernatural/deprivation tank “why are you keeping this curiosity door LOCKED?” We also see on the st soundtrack -the song playing while alexi is explaining the upsidedown - is called “the door is opening”. And @ghostgirlinsatin​ mentioned this detail after I orginally posted this-when alexi runs away ‘neutron dance ‘ plays and the lyric is “I’ll just stay behind this LOCKED door.”

We see mr clarke stab a pencil into a plate and Alexi stab a straw into a box to illustrate this doorway. Along with Lonnie hammering a nail into a wall in an attempt to close a open door (and saying someone should be held accountable for what happened to Will). it transitions from Lonnie repeatedly hitting the nail with a hammer to Mike stabbing a plate with a pencil -like mr clarke -and explaining how Will got to the upsidedown. Because ironically- Lonnie is the cause of what happened to Will (and should be held accountable). gif visuals-here.

If you’ve read my  ‘crashcourse of evidence for Will creating the upsidedown/mf” or the longer version called the “did theory” you generally know where this is going.

Like Dustin said- the upsidedown is a “alternate dimension” a “dark echo of our world.”

Which I believe Will created based on suppressed memories. A few things appear to be triggers-bathtubs, clowns, and slamming doors. When Will first sees the upsidedown in s2- the arcade door slams open (making Will jump). And later when first seeing the mf (his front door opens by itself-similar to the demogorgan opening the door in s1). In s3 when Billy yells to open the door- Will senses the mf (and touches the back of the neck-which a season prior was associated with memories).

I think the door imagery (to some extent) represents Lonnie coming home and slamming/unlocking the front door. in s1 when Hopper knocks at Joyce’s door aggressively (she says ‘go away lonnie’). Demogorgan in d&d also means ‘deep father’ & Nancy says the demogorgan is like a “lion” (lonnie’s name means lion). And just all the other connections to the demogorgan and Lonnie I talked about in my ‘crashcourse post’ (baseball, hunting,lights,etc). And the fact Billy and el (who are heavily paralleled to Will) also have Dads yelling to “open the door” is  suspicious too.  I mean Neil calls his son William a “f*g”, and makes him play baseball -just like Lonnie did to Will. And Neil also yells for William (Billy) to open his door, before hurting him. So I could see  Lonnie doing that to Will in the past ...

We even have El see a red door- while in the void

Heck- in s2 , Dr owens said Will’s anniversary affect would make him remember tra*matic memories and OPEN his neurological flood GATES(  and these openings to the upsidedown are also called GATES and DOORS)!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Pining John Pt. 2

Please if you have any pining!John fics (like Sherlock accidentally hurts him like he did molly with the Christmas gift) I would absolutely love that!! Thank you so much😊(submitted by @thediamondwoman)

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: hi! New Johnlocker here, this is a fic rec ask, but do you have any fics where John is pining/suppressing/ignoring his feelings for Sherlock? Preferably after TRF, and without Mary in the way, and a slow burn one (sorry for all the preferences just one with pining John would be fine) and thank you for being a blog currently reading all your metas and they are amazing <3333

@i-love-books-and-so-do-you asked: hullo!! *waves* i’m in the mood for some pining john, so i was wondering if you have any good ones? preferably with a happy ending

and may i just say your blog is GORGEOUS like all your fic recs *chef’s kiss* thank you for the literal best johnlock content <33

——-

Hi Lovelies!!!

First of all, thank you for your love for my lists! LOL! These asks just keep coming in, so it looks like I’m overdue for another pining John list!!

That said I do actually have pining John fics, and enough to start a second list! As I re-read fics, I’m able to keep adding all the old ones I didn’t tag ages ago to lists, so that’s fun, hahah. Hope you guys don’t mind me just combining all the pining into one list, hahaah. I get more fics that way LOL!

Enjoy, and feel free to add your own, friends!

See also:

Pining John

Pining Sherlock || [MOBILE FRIENDLY VERSION]

Mutual Pining

Mutual Pining Pt 2

John’s Away (and Sherlock’s Not Okay)

Caffeine and Adaptive Programming by DemonicSymphony (E, 5,540 w., 1 Ch. || Androids AU / Bond Fusion || Android Sherlock, Coffee Shop AU, Pining John Hinted Bond / Q, Toplock) – Sherlock is a coffee shop android slowly falling for a regular customer. But he's not supposed to be able to feel emotions.

London Gods by a_different_equation (E, 11,092 w., 5 Ch. || American Gods Fusion || Magical Realism, Sex Magic, True Love, PTSD John, First Kiss/Time, Marathon Sex, Sensuality, Genie Sherlock, Human John, Internalized Homophobia, Star-Crossed Lovers, Soul Mates) – Sherlock Holmes is a jinn who does not grant wishes. However, when Dr. John H. Watson, recently returned from the war in Afghanistan, gets into his cab by "accident", it might not even need magic to grant both men their deepest wish: love.

There's So Much Labour Just in Breathing Lately by Susan (E, 12,708 w., 1 Ch. || Post-TRF / Mentions of S3 Events, Romance, Angst, Grief/Mourning, Grieving John, Mutual Pining, Meddling Mycroft, Therapy, Ambiguous Hopeful Ending, Infidelity) – The dreams he hated most – the ones that left him a sweating, shaking mess when he woke – were the ones in which Sherlock was just Sherlock. Laughing or drinking tea. Sitting across the table from him at Angelo’s eating pasta. Trailing his open hand behind him on the way to the bedroom. “C’mon, John. I’m about to have my way with you.”

On The Fence by BeautifulFiction (T, 13,770 w., 1 Ch. || Fencing, Case Fic, First Kiss, Insecure John, Pining John, Hug, Greg Finds Out) – The murder of the King's College fencing champion leads to revelations about Sherlock's past. Will it be the point that tips them from friends to lovers, or will they remain on the fence?

The Invocation of Saint Margaret by Ewebie (E, 15,831 w., 1 Ch. || POV John,  Crossing Timelines, Light Angst, Fluff, Series 3 John / Series 1 Sherlock, The Matchbox, Mushy Romance, First Time, Bisexual John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Love Confessions, Sensuality, Emotional Love Making, Snippets of Time) – When Sherlock Holmes opens the matchbox from The Sign of Three and John finds himself years in the past, back to that first dinner at Angelo's with a much younger Sherlock Holmes. Is he dreaming?

Division by MrsNoggin (E, 19,542 w., 11 Ch. || Coffee Shop AU || First Kiss/Time, Fluff, Barista Sherlock, Clingy Sherlock, POV John, John’s Limp, Bed Sharing, Fluff, Sleepy Cuddles, Sensuality, Touching, Virgin Sherlock, Insecure John) – John likes mysteries. And every morning he dips into the local independent coffee bar with his newspaper and ponders another... one Sherlock Holmes.

Insanity in the Middle by DotyTakeThisDown (E, 28,010 w., 8 Ch. || Equestrian Sports AU || Alternate First Meeting, POV John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Clueless Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Passionate Kisses, Hand Holding, Caught Making Out, Bed Sharing, Spooning, Blow Job) – John is a world-class eventing rider with a gold medal and several four-star wins to his credit, but he's never won at Rolex. Sherlock is an up-and-coming rider taking the sport by storm.

Deck the Halls by itsalwaysyou_jw (T, 31,018 w., 24 Ch. || Advent Fic / Multiple One-Shots, Assorted Tags) – One Johnlock ficlet for every day leading up to Christmas. Who is ready for pining, first kisses, established Johnlock, and everything in between? This collection of stand-alone ficlets will have it all.

The Case of the Vanishing Pants by SwissMiss (E, 44,025 w., 6 Ch. || Five and Ones, Post-TRF, Case Fic, UST, Homophobia, Friends to Lovers, Pining John, Showering Together, Couple for a Case, Sherlock’s Bum, Fantasies, Jealous Sherlock) – Five times John and Sherlock lost their pants in the course of a case.

Only To Be With You by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (M, 40,768 w., 4 Ch. || Black Mirror / Future AU || Character Death, Future Technology, Sickness/Cancer/Illness, Heavy Angst with Happy Ending, First Person POV John, Pining John, Heart-Wrenching Angst) – I tell myself that next time I’ll come near this same place again. Wait around for the mysterious stranger in his coat to dash past me, hot on the heels of a new criminal in black. I think this all the way back to my Exit, planning where I’ll wait and what I’ll say when I see him. Scheming on how to get his name. It’s only once I reach the Exit Point door that I realize two hours and forty-five minutes have passed, and I realize that this won’t be the last time I Visit. It won’t be the last time at all.

Inscrutable to the Last by DiscordantWords (M, 48,842 w., 6 Ch. || Post-TRF, Alternate S3, John’s Blog/S3 is a Story By John, Divorce, Marital Difficulties, John is a Mess, Emotional Reunion, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Grief / Mourning, Pining John, First Kiss, Adorably Clueless Sherlock, Nostalgia, Love Confessions, Eventual Happy Ending) – He wasn't Sherlock, he couldn't work miracles. All he'd ever been able to do was write about them.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by SilentAuror (E, 50,635 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S4/S4 Divergence, Case Fic, For a Case / Reverse Fake-Relationship, Conferences, Marriage Equality, Travelling / New York, Pride, Homophobia, Bottomlock, Marriage Proposal, John POV, Sexuality, Love Confessions, Emotional Love Making, Public Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Passionate Kissing, Needy/Clingy Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Touching / Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, Little Spoon Sherlock, Intense Orgasms) – John and Sherlock go to New York to attend a conference run by the National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition in order to investigate the potential bombing of the annual Manhattan Pride parade. As the conference unfolds, John finds himself repulsed by the toxic ideology being presented, which becomes relevent to his own unacknowledged issues and his friendship with Sherlock...

Isosceles by SilentAuror (E, 56,609 w., 7 Ch. || Post-S4, POV John, Original Male Character / Sherlock Dates Another Man, Love Triangle, Jealous John, Virgin Sherlock, Sexual Coaching, Angst, Romance, Domesticity, Unrequited Feelings, Miscommunication, First Kiss/Time, For a Case, Friends With Benefits, Bottomlock, Love Confessions, Spooning) – After solving a case for a major celebrity, Sherlock gets himself asked out. When John asks, he discovers that Sherlock has no intention of going, at least not until John agrees to coach him through whatever he might need to know for his date...

White Knight by DiscordantWords (M, 69,840 w., 13 Ch. || S4 Compliant/Post S4, Marriage For a Case, Jealous John, Pining John, Janine / Sherlock Fake Relationship, Serial Killers, Case Fic, Undercover as a Couple, Weddings, John is a Mess, Misunderstandings, Wedding Planning, Jealousy, Drunkenness, Love Confessions, Angst with Happy Ending) – Green. The word green was used to convey a great many things. Illness. Envy. Inexperience. Standing there amidst Janine's chattering bridesmaids, watching Sherlock furrow his brow and study fabric swatches, watching him smile and simper and flirt, John thought it a remarkably apt colour choice. Because he felt quite sick to his stomach, he feared the source of said sickness might very well be jealousy, and he had absolutely no idea at all what to do about it. Or: Sherlock needs to fake a relationship for a case. He doesn't ask John.

Thermocline by J_Baillier (M, 83,557 w., 14 Ch. || Scuba Diving AU || Adventure, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Marine Archaeology, Asexual Sherlock, Horny John, Relationship Drama, Technical/Scuba/Wreck Diving, Slow Burn, Underwater /  Medical Peril, Doctor John, Hurt Sherlock, Anxious Sherlock, John POV, Protective John, Body Appreciation) – John "Five Oceans" Watson — technical dive instructor, dive accident analyst and weapon of mass seduction — meets recluse professor of maritime archaeology Holmes. As they head out to a remote archipelago off the coast of Guatemala to study and film its shipwrecks for a documentary, will sparks fly or fizzle out?

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w., 37 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel., Possessive/Obsessive Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock, Mutual Pining, Body Appreciation, Depression, Closeted Sexuality, Family, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Ogling Each Other, Anxious Sherlock, Panic Attack, Drunkenness, Talk of Forever, Big Feelings™) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it's a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

Proving A Point by elldotsee & J_Baillier (E, 186,270 w., 28 Ch. || Me Before You Fusion || Medical Realism, Insecure John, Depression, Romance, Angst, POV John, Sherlock Whump, Serious Illness, Doctor John, Injury Recovery, Assisted Suicide, Sherlock’s Violin, Awkward Sexual Situations, Alcoholism, Drugs, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Body Image, Friends to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Pain, Big Brother Mycroft, Intimacy, Anxiety, PTSD, Family Issues, Psychological Trauma, John Whump, Case Fics, Loneliness, Pain) – Invalided home from Afghanistan, running out of funds and convinced that his surgical career is over, John Watson accepts a mysterious job offer to provide care and companionship for a disabled person. Little does he know how much hangs in the balance of his performance as he settles into his new life at Musgrave Court.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

The good: 

Skam España set up Amira’s crush on Dani (and Dani’s crush on Amira) in s2 and, regardless of how it ends, they are following through with that storyline, instead of dropping it like a hot potato.

The bad: 

Okay, so first off I have to say I’ve never vibed with Lucas Nabor (Dani)’s acting. And by never I truly do mean never, as in the first day of Cris’ season, I found the way Lucas N played Dani in the confrontation with Cris after they get home extremely cringy. This was way before I could’ve ever dreamed that Skam España would whitewash Yousef’s character and turn him into a white character. 

So, for me, it’s not just an issue of whitewashing (which is already bad enough on a show with no meaningful male characters of color), but eskam pairing one of my favorite Skams character ever with the character I like the least for acting reasons.

But I figured eskam wouldn’t really have the audacity to whitewash a love interest and not give us a Yousef of color in another form. Just like the way we got that 5-second glimpse of Lucas Rubio hooking up with a boy named Iván in the s2 finale, so people could see the male Isak had also found an Even, or the way we got a full season of Miquel being the abusive boyfriend that Spanish viewers saw William as, but for Noorhelm fans, Alejandro still got to be Nora’s endgame. 

And so, when Sofian in the trailer was blatantly posited as a love interest, juxtaposed with shots of Dani with the same expression and filmed from the same angle, I thought, “Okay, so Amira will have an additional love interest who is actually Moroccan, and he’ll probably be around much less (like Iván in s2 and Alejandro in s3), but he’ll be the endgame.” 

Like... Never in my wildest nightmares would I have thought that Skam España would take... idefk... Lito from Skam and turn him into a full fledged character who’d play the fuck out of Amira and attempt to talk her into bearding. 

When Kasim was introduced and people immediately noticed the look between Lucas and Kasim, I thought, “no fucking way Skam España would pull an Elite.” WHEN, when has Skam España looked towards Elite for inspiration before? Not even just to “fix” Elite storylines and turn them into good storylines. Elite and Skam España have never existed in the same sphere or tried to do the same things or impacted each other.

When the spoilers came out, I thought back to the time in s3 when the same hackers said that Alejandro would hit Miquel with a bottle. At the time, I heard of the Alejandro spoilers and wondered to myself, “is this something Skam España would ever do?” And I thought nah, no way, Skam España has never been concerned with toxic masculinity or romanticized it. And I was right! 

So I did the same thing with these spoilers, and I was SO SURE that I had understood the show, that I had understood what Skam España had been trying to do all these three seasons, that Skam España was so disinterested in men as a whole that they’d never try something so complex with either Dani (a conversion storyline) or Kasim (a closeted storyline). Both of those storylines are storylines Skam España gives to GIRLS. Because men in eskam have always been more about what they symbolize for the girls, than their own entities. And I liked that! So, on that level I feel betrayed, because Skam España had been telling it was one thing for three seasons, until in s4 they decided Amira didn’t deserve the same treatment as all the other mains, where she doesn’t get to be by far the most complex character in her own season. (I’m not saying Amira isn’t complex - she is. She is the most complex Sana and the most nuanced.) 

There are a couple things that gave me a bad vibe about this season from the start: one was the fact that Kasim wasn’t introduced in episode 1. Skam España always introduces the characters that are significant for the main in episode 1, so for Kasim to not show up in episode 1, that was a sign. The other one was that Skam España gave the bonus clips to Alejandro. This is a show that refused to give Lucas bonus clips in s2, because his experience as a gay boy just wasn’t relevant to Cris. Not in the same Viri’s experience was relevant to Nora. And suddenly, Alejandro (and not Nora) gets the bonus clips in a season about Amira? Like, it was just fucking weird. It is weird as shit that a show that has always gleefully centered the female experience to the detriment of the male experience, would decide in their Muslim woc season, that it was time for the whitest, straightest, cisgenderedest, richest character on the show to be the first one to get some focus.

Because Sana seasons across the board have underperformed compared to the seasons that came before them (because of racism and islamophobia in Europe), I thought that maybe Movistar had decided to lean on the romance a bit more heavily this season, in order to make it seem more appealing. Kinda makes sense, no? We’re tired of seeing straight white girl seasons, so making Nora’s season lean a bit more on the educational side of Skam isn’t a risk. People will still tune in. But a Sana season is a bit of a harder sell, so we have to sweeten the deal with romcom tropes and all the other couples in the show making out and about to have sex, to make up for Amira not getting those scenes. I thought I could live with that.

But like, there’s adding some background fanservice from established couples and then there’s this monstrosity that leans into EVERY islamophobic Muslim trope ever (because it’s super commercial and high stakes drama and excitingggggg). Like, in Western media, Muslim men are either oppressors (abusive, strict husbands who beat their wives and are terrorists or thugs or thieves) or oppressed (closeted gay boys who resort to extreme means, such as bearding or dealing drugs, in order to stay under the radar). They never get to be the leading love interest. I have never seen a Muslim man of color on Spanish TV be the male love interest, and especially not the love interest to a Muslim woman. And Skam España will be no different.

I also hope people understand the way it undermines literally every other thing they’re trying to do with the show. Amira already explained at length both her own stance towards gay people and Islam’s stance towards gay people, in s2 and her bonus video with Lucas. if you want to be a Muslim in good standing, you can be gay as long as you don’t act on it. But you can also be a Muslim who eats pork, or a Muslim who doesn’t fast in Ramadan, or a Muslim who doesn’t pray five times a day, because ultimately it’s about every individual’s relationship with Allah. To go back on this for a homophobic Muslims storyline undoes everything they did in s2. 

It also undermines Dounia as a character. Here’s a practicing Muslim who longs for a safe space, who doesn’t want to answer questions from non Muslims, who thinks it’s better not to even open the door to a relationship with a white non Muslim, and who’s really confident in all those decisions. And if you think the show isn’t setting her up to be confronted with the fact her brother doesn’t feel safe among Muslims, who prefers questions from non Muslims over telling the truth to Muslims, who has happily opened the door to a relationship with a white non Muslim, who thinks that Dounia is a homophobe in short, and that she will be made to reexamine all her beliefs because of her brother... I just don’t know what to say to you tbh.

And also, this clip made it seem like Amira’s Muslim world wouldn’t accept her crush on Dani, undoing everything the show has done until now. Dounia didn’t disapprove when Amira told her she had a crush on a white non Muslim. She understood and shared her experience. Amira’s mother knew about her crush on Dani and never tried to stop it, nor did she discourage it when Amira told her about it. Why is Skam España suddenly acting like Amira can’t tell anyone about her budding relationship with Dani, when every anon on tumblr dot com will tell you that relationships between Muslim women and Christian men happen all the time?

And finally, it just makes me reexamine previous Skam España seasons and wonder... Did they make Amira only start wearing hijab in the first day of s1 because they knew a character like Sana wouldn’t contemplate a relationship with a white character who makes islamophobic jokes, drinks and makes out with the Sana’s friends in front of her after specifically inviting her to a party? Did they make Amira the show’s Isak’s best friend just so they could whitewash Yousef? Was the whole purpose and trajectory of Amira on the show, everything they did with her, a justification for whitewashing one of the few positive men of color on Western TV? For refusing to show a Muslim girl in a happy relationship with a Muslim boy? To only portray and devote time to Muslim poc/white atheists relationships? (Amira’s parents not withstanding.) As if the most positive outcome for a Muslim person living in Europe is to marry a white atheist. That is what Skam España did to Sana’s season, to Sana, to the balloon squad. 

[friendofhayley]

ship history meme

Embrace your past and get to know your friends’ fandom origins!

Rules: Post gifs of your fandoms / ships starting with your most current hyperfixation and work backwards. (Bonus points if you share any stories about how or when you got into that ship! But not necessary!!) Then tag anyone whose fandom history you’d like to learn about!

Tagged by the most gorgeous, smartest, sweetest, and kindest person in my life @sightetsound​ <3 Sorry y’all, I have a lot of hyperfixations and I’m on NyQuil!

1. Katsuki Bakugo and Eijiro Kirishima, My Hero Academia - I literally can’t watch Season 4 until it’s finished because my heart will Explode if I’m left on a cliffhanger involving these too!!! (Unbreakable T.T <3) I don’t usually like animes but I fell in love with his trash bastard and his soft rock boyfriend by the villain’s attack in S1. It all started when I got a TikTok because a Very Hot Bakugo cosplayer was on there. (Literally, their rendition of Bakugo is just, umph. They have appeared in my dream.). As she got more popular he started cosplaying more of Class 1-A of MHA, and I kept wondering?? What the fuck is this anime about?? Why is there an alien girl?? I soon gave in and watched the show to gain context to this thirst trap. I have so many feels for these boys, even though I don’t post on them much here, and T.T

2. Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane, Shadowhunters - I literally almost wrote my thesis because of this ship. I got into Shadowhunters because I was depressed in a foreign, racist country where I couldn’t go outside alone because old white men would corner me on the street, and everyone was talking about how Mike from Glee was kissing a guy at a wedding? Instead of partying during my study abroad trip, I gobbled down Malec content. And like who wouldn’t?? Harry Shum Jr. was playing a bisexual warlock?? And he had lines and a main character role??? An interracial couple where the characters are both POC?? Sign me up! But then I quickly fell in love with awkward gayby Alec and immediately knew how it felt to be in his shoes. (Disclaimer: I still haven’t finished the show because I don’t want their story to end, but just seeing their wedding scene????? Tears!!!!!!!!!! Both wedding scenes! I-) I just love how soft they look at each as they realize how lucky they are to be able to fall in love against the odds. T.T They deserve the world and all the warlock and shadowhunter babies and T.T This is just going to devolve into me crying so-

3. Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale, Teen Wolf - I got into Teen Wolf to escape the hellfire that had become the Glee fandom around S3-S4. (Tbh it might have been Dereklei’s constant Sterek content on my dash that led me to give in.) Stiles was bi (through subtext) and definitely turned on by an older werewolf. What more could a depressed Gleek ask for? And listen - now looking back, Sterek is definitely gay Twilight - if Bella was snarkier, had a mental illness, and also a personality. Sterek was the ship to get me back into writing fanfiction and where I could read paranormal characters working through PTSD, ADHD, and other mental illnesses while fighting monsters and having unrealistic sex! I also love those future fics where Beacon Hills isn’t a Hellmouth anymore, and everyone’s alive and just living as one big found family. Truly, Derek deserves the world and I love him so much, and Stiles definitely agrees.

4. Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles, One Direction - If it’s a surprise that I’m a dark larrie, please read my bio. HL made me believe that love is real and exists and can last for years. I got into One Direction in 2011 through a Lilo fanfic, but as soon as I watched the Video Diaries,,,we knew. Louis has saved my life in ways I can’t describe and the songs that they’ve written for each other through their tough times are so inspiring to listen and dance to. Seeing how they’ve been dragged apart by management, Sony Entertainment, and the whole music industry as a whole even though they exist in glass closets is very disheartening to see. But their resilience that they show through their art (Only the Brave, Sweet Creature, If I Could Fly, and like so many others) is always there. If you want to fall in this rabbit hole, look at freddieismyqueen on YT and come inside lol. Larry is real.

5. Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson, Glee - the ship that got me on Tumblr! I didn’t start watching Glee until the summer before S2 came out. My whole choir was into it and I didn’t want to be “mainstream”, but Kurt was the first openly gay teen character that I saw on TV. When I heard a character played by Darren Criss, a musical theater YT legend from AVPM, I had to watch it. I ended up binging the first season with those Netflix DVDs during summer break (yeah remember when Netflix wasn’t streaming? lol). I watched every episode of that god-forsaken show the night of (or night after illegally, hidden from my parents) for that ship, and then me and my best friend would rant about it for the whole week: rinse and repeat. The episode they got together made me scream and I definitely put those Glee Rewind songs in my iPhone. (Fun fact: I used to cry at night because I wished someone like Kurt could love me like that because I heavily related to Blaine and his whole situation). I naturally stopped watching Glee the moment they broke them up and I’m still mad at their hasty attempt to marry them out of nowhere with no well-written getting together / make-up arc other than Jigsaw?? and a barn wedding?? As if Hummel would. What a trash fire. But dang, Glee fanfics have some of the dirtiest, kinkiest, forbidden fics out there. If you were ever on Glee_Kink_Meme on LJ, you know.

6. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter - the ship that started it all, the big kahuna, the ultimate enemies to lovers for 90s kids. Drarry got me into the fandom world in middle school, where I basically lived on FFN and LJ while pretending to do my homework. I used to get ready every day by watching the same playlist of “The best Harry Potter videos on Youtube!” (curated by Ariel333Lindt, who was the only queer person I knew but lived in Eastern Europe, where I could see two gay people kiss and fall in love in the safety of my room through badly photoshopped videos. Please check out that playlist). I just love how each fic is a microcosm where they have to construct how magical systems work, the backstories of pureblood families, creatures, or just wizarding culture for the end goal of having Drarry fuck and fall in love! I love redemption arcs that take 200k to achieve, I love dark!Harry takes, and every single different damn take on Narcissa, Pansy, and Millicent - because deep down that’s the writer trying to come to turns on whether or not Draco should be redeemed to get together with Harry. (I mean we all know they’re obsessed with each other, book 6 anyone?) I feel like Drarry fics have the best worldbuilding and characterizations of these characters, and I just love those moments when Draco and Harry take a moment to take a breath together and realize how far they’ve come. No one else can understand how it felt to be the pariah or the chosen one, they both interacted with Voldemort the most, and they have the most history together. They should have gotten together! But I mean the author’s dead, am I right?

So that was a lot! Those are all the ships that impacted me that I still participate with. They have shaped me for better or worse, and have made me learn more about who I am and what I want (or don’t want) in a relationship. This was the most fun essay I’ve ever written on NyQuil!

I’m tagging @homosociallyyours​ because I really want to know your fandom story! Also @stozierbrak​ because I love you and must hear you gush about your boys. I’m also tagging @iamaqualady​ because you’re literally the most intriguing person I know and I’m glad we’re friends even though we haven’t interacted that much? ish? 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 11 pt 2: Seto Discovers Vulture Capitalism

Where were we on this arc that ended up being hella longer than I thought it would be? Oh yeah, Last we left the crew, Tristan’s body, now possessed by Nezbitt, was just racing away with Mokuba. This kid gets abducted so often, it’s never occurred to me that anyone in this show would think this is weird. So, when Noah showed up to intervene with actual common sense it was a good bit of whiplash for me.

It’s like the same whiplash I got back when Noah attempted to forfeit a rigged game (for the first time in this entire series). Like I get that Noah is the villain, but how is the evil kid way better at this common sense thing than...a lot of people who’ve been on this show? Not that Noah’s always smart, of course, he still doesn’t seem totally with it on a lot of things (like interior design, which we will get to in a sec) but wow. Noah actually called out this entire show with “Really? Mokuba? Again?”

And so you know what that means? We get to see Noah’s sweet pad in this VR world where Noah could have created anything. Literally anything. To start, he made himself a fireplace with a tiny tiny stack of wood (pretty sure Noah might not know how fires work) and...some sort of...curse on the mantle.

Maybe the mantle couldn’t read the typeface that Noah wanted to use on the mantle?

The rest of the room is just this. Just this.

You know what this no-walls aesthetic SUPER reminds me of?

Pocket Camp. Like this just looks like a Pocket Camp set up to me. In fact...I’m pretty sure I can make almost this exact room in Pocket Camp.

Noah’s just inviting Mokuba over with the bare minimum of ugly ass furniture he needs to have a person over at his campsite he pretends is a house while he waits patiently for the real version of Animal Crossing to come to Switch.

Leichter has an accent that is very old-fashioned Americana and doesn’t wholly make sense in the context of him living in urban Japan, like there’s a whole story there I’d be curious about. But most likely, they were probably trying to cover up the fact that they were using the same 5 voice actors by having him pull out the Clark Gable impression.

And then Seto did not use a Blue Eyes as his deck Master. Instead he used....this guy.

This is a lot of guy to take in. I...I don’t like it.

During this duel we get a Seto Kaiba flashback--and it’s an honest flashback this time, no clones are going to show up and reenact this performance, this is just a straight up flashback.

We’re transported back to Gozoboro’s long buffet table. He really, really loves this thing. It’s like the only place he and his kids ever seem to hang out. Surprised Mokuba and Seto don’t need glasses after squinting so hard to see their own Father for so many years. Also surprised Mokuba and Seto even know what their Dad looks like up close.

Anyways, he sits down at the table and shouts really loudly so it can reach the other side of the room.

Also, just gonna bring this up, we’ve only seen one other guy obsessed with long tables--let me do some digging to a S1 cap, one sec:

Maybe this is just what evil Dads who wear Salmon do?  They get hella long tables to seat their 0 friends and just sit at one of the ends and monologue until something important happens. I mean y’all know how much I love this storyboarder but boy they have a thing for villains and long tables.

Anyways, back to Season 3.

(bro’s telling me he does not know about Thoroughly Modern Millie and like can you believe neither Hulu or Netflix has that musical? I mean that musical is problematic as hell, as is all Broadway but maybe I want to watch some 1920′s dancing.)

Anyways, cue Gozaboro shuffling in a comedically large pile of money on a very small pushcart. About 1,099,520,000.00 Yen’s worth. But the show will simplify it for the Americans.

This episode of Yugioh was made around 2002, and this just followed the .com bubble bursting in California. (and before that happened, it was preceded by a recession in Japan that affected the .com bubble quite a bit) For those here who were not born yet and do not remember this happening, this was like, pretty horrifying. I grew up in the Bay where 90% of everyone still works in tech, so I remember that after the bubble burst there were kids in our school who’s parents used to have great salaries and a steady income, who suddenly had to pick up shifts at Starbucks to get back on their feet.

So, it’s interesting that we have this kid’s show basically showing us point blank what Vulture Capitalism is and how it works. You’d think this business stuff would normally go over kid’s heads, but at the time, I think a lot of kids wanted to know what happened to their families but maybe didn’t understand it?

So Kaiba is gonna get into investing all of a sudden, which is kind of weird, mostly because it involved no playing cards. Also because this happened:

Yeah, what? He’s apparently not even adopted yet, which means Seto could still turn around and tell the News that he beat Gozaboro in a match but, I guess that old threat has aged out.

It’s inferred that Seto’s been living here like for several years now. You’d think this guy would list some dependents just for the tax cuts, but nah, Gozaboro just shoved these two into the gigantic 5000 sq ft closet under the stairs of his huge mansion and forgot about them for a couple years.

So, armed with money that is printed on single Yen bills and being pushed around Kaiba in a little tiny cart, Seto has to formulate a plan. Problem is, his business skills include a.) beating up other orphans b.) doing math pretty good and c.) playing cards.

When Seto is like “I don’t care what the company sells, just get me a company to buy” that’s like a straight reference to the .com bubble, but minus the complicated stock market stuff.

For the kid’s in the room that don’t know a thing about this era, tech companies were being created en masse, and because the internet was new and exciting, all of their worth was in their stock rather than in their products--if they even had a product. Mostly they just had big overreaching ideas they were pretty sure would make them all millionaires. But the product didn’t really matter since no one ever reads any numbers when all they plan to do is turn around and immediately sell anyway. They just assumed that if they put on the pressure, they would drive up the value, and would sell before anyone figured out it was all worthless.

This actually worked for so many years, up until people at the top all started demanding real money from the people at the bottom, much like how Seto needed 100 million dollars ASAP from an unsuspecting...whatever company this was. Vulture Capitalism at it’s finest, expecting exponential and unrealistic growth from any company, and if, the growth isn’t met, just selling the whole damn thing after driving every employee to the hospital for overwork.

Now, normally Vulture Capitalism is only if an investor buys a struggling company intending to sell directly afterwards, but since Seto made them struggle like immediately after purchasing, I think we can still call this that.

(And we still do this to this day, PS, we’ve learned nothing from the .com crash.)

This really bad child’s outfit is my favorite Mokuba outfit. I mean...it’s so bad. No wonder Mokuba was picked on so often as a child, wow. He’s like a late-80′s news anchor.

Also, I have NO idea how Seto got any money back so quickly. That doesn’t...totally make sense. But, this is a kid’s show and we have to simplify this whole thing into a sensible package. I mean there’s way more to the whole  .com problem but...this show wasn’t literally doing a .com...just a really heavy reference to it.

And much like how people valued stock more than what companies actually were, Seto’s value was a lot of the same. His worth to his Father wasn’t that of a son, it was entirely held up in potential dollar signs. To Gozaboro, Seto's nothing more than a small company he’ll extort straight into...a more emotional type of bankruptcy. Framed alongside the .com crash, this is sort of like, ah, I see what you’re doing, Yugioh. The way Seto was screwing this company was the same way he was already screwed. It’s basically all he knows, and it is a lot of heavy handed foreshadowing.

Anyway, Seto destroyed a company with 10 mill, which is nothing compared to the amount of money vulture capitalists toss around nowadays.

The Big 5 may have honestly done a better job raising Kaiba than Gozoburo since this guy acted as an advisor rather than a boss, but it’s a very, very low bar these boys have set and so far, very few adults have met it. All you have to do is just try and not kill them and you’re already better than all of Kaiba’s father figures.

With the exception of Roland, of course. Youknow, other than Grandpa, Roland is like the only good Dad on this show. Never thought Roland would look like such a shining star. Man, Roland better not screw everyone over or I will be so disappointed in him.

Anyways, the Yugi crew found a fully fueled truck from Soviet Era Russia buried in one of those warehouses.

They censor so much stuff that gives away that Yugioh is from another country, and they kept in the 3-wheeler pickup? As if any North American child would have any idea what they’re looking at right now? Maybe they just assumed we’d think it was sci-fi?

Also, then this happened?

...OK then.

Not sure how Satellite Laser works outside the context of VR. But, at least here in the VR Zone, we can send a Satellite Laser into space because...Space exists here? In VR?

This world is weirdly very small but also very big at the same time. It’s like Katamari.

Anyway, that’s all for this episode, next episode we find out if Kaiba will hack a laser for the second time in this series. Also we find out if Joey can jump a sonic-the-hedgehog broken highway with a 3-wheeled European-as-hell Pickup Truck.

Also...close enough?

Pocket camp really needs more yellow sleeveless puff jackets.

And here’s a link to read the recaps in Chrono order from Ep1 S1

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam season 3, episode 8 reaction

I am so, so excited to talk about this episode. It’s probably my favorite overall episode of Skam, maybe tied with episode 5 of this season. It took me forever to write this one because it’s so jam-packed with things to talk about, and I know that despite my best efforts, I’ve likely forgotten something. 

This is the show firing on all cylinders: the acting, writing, directing, editing, music are all excellent. The social media content from this week is brilliantly deployed. Watching episode 8 in real time was one of the best experiences in the fandom, as Julie kept us happy with amazing Evak content and wonderful interaction with Isak’s friends, while also stringing us along with a feeling of dread. Something was off. Something was coming to knock us on our asses, and every clip and text message kept the speculation flowing as we waited for answers. 

I meant to get all the S3 reactions done before the first S3 remake starts airing, but lmao, that’s not happening. I do want to finish them by the end of October, though.

Episode 8

Clip 1 - The clip that turned us into Gabrielle stans

Saturday, 11:11 - the repeating numbers have returned!

Isak wakes up the morning after spending the night with Even, alone again. The other side of the bed is conspicuously empty. Poor Isak! You know how crushingly disappointed he must feel this time. Like … if Even has left him again, Even basically used him for sex and then bailed. What an asshole. That’s even lower than everything else that has happened so far. Isak must be feeling so stupid at this point. You know he thinks that he’s fallen for Even’s bullshit yet again, and angry at himself for giving in to Even’s Evenness. He just had the night of his life, and now it was all a lie.

He even checks the pillow for signs of a sketch left behind, and that little detail tugs at my heartstrings. He knows Even’s patterns now, and he’s really hoping for something.

He checks his phone but there’s no text from Even, just one from his dad telling him about wanting to go to a Christmas concert with Isak and his mom, but lol, Isak doesn’t have time for his dad’s shit right now.

Please note the strategically placed toilet paper on Isak’s nightstand. I will leave it to your imagination why it is there. But I will say that I kind of love the production team for even thinking of this, lmao. Talk about attention to detail.

Isak gets dressed and when he opens his door, we hear faint laughter coming from elsewhere in the apartment. I will say that when I first watched this clip, I definitely expected this to be the case, that Even was making breakfast or using the bathroom or doing something else in the flat and hadn’t actually left. Otherwise it would be too repetitive, you know? How many times can Skam show us Even bailing on Isak before enough is enough? But obviously, the seeds are in place to make us think this could be the case. It’s a clear parallel to episode 5 when Isak woke up alone to just a sketch and Eskild and Noora’s curiosity. Still, isn’t it such a relief when we hear Even’s voice? When he’s just hanging out charming the pants off Eskild and Noora?

The way Isak creeps into the kitchen like he’s not sure this is real, that maybe he’s still dreaming. Or maybe he just doesn’t know what to think about this whole thing. I mean, he did just sleep with Even after they were apart for weeks, he doesn’t know what Even’s deal is, if Even still has a girlfriend…

I love that Isak has a Simpsons shirt, by the way. The Simpsons peaked like … before Isak was born, but the older episodes are still classic. And we get this super intense scene where Isak is about to climb Even like the tall Norwegian tree he is and he just has Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie chillin’ on their iconic sofa to bear witness. Personally I don’t think The Simpsons are a good aphrodisiac but Even is so hot for Isak that Isak could be decked out in full Krusty the Clown cosplay and Even would want to hit that. (I think this is Tarjei’s shirt? I try not to dig too deep into that kid’s life out of respect for his privacy but at the same time, Tarjei’s existence is like … fascinating.)

But oh man, imagine Isak creeping into the kitchen and seeing Even interact with Eskild and Noora. These two people are meeting Even! They are meeting the guy he likes! Especially Eskild, who knows about the Isak/Even drama in detail! It’s got to be nerve-wracking even though Even is clearly getting a positive reception. I mean, it is like Mom and Dad are meeting the boyfriend, kinda? It’s a very tangible reminder that this thing with Even is real, that Isak’s relationship with Even is going to have to be public eventually, or at least known to the people in his life.

Let’s respect that it’s 11 in the afternoon and Noora is fully dressed and Eskild is just in a blue silk robe. That sounds about right for their characters. (Are you a Noora or an Eskild in terms of weekend apparel? I’m definitely an Eskild.)

I love seeing Even, Noora, and Eskild all smiling together. Noora and Eskild are smitten. I mean, who wouldn’t be? A cute swoopy-haired dude is cooking breakfast in your kitchen. Shout out to Josefine for getting in some light hair twirling as she stares at Even.

One of my favorite things about Even is how well he gets along with the other people in Isak’s life. He’s warm and friendly to his roommates, to his friends, etc. Even is just a very social person, but I think it’s cool how he makes other characters feel at ease. And Even being so likable has got to be helpful for Isak, too - it’s hard enough to come out, but his new boyfriend being charming and winning people over might lessen some of his fears about how they’ll be perceived. At least he won’t have an awkward divide between his friends and his boyfriend.

I love Even’s delivery of “God morgen” and the way he just plants that kiss on Isak. Isak is standing there with his hands in his pockets, not sure what’s happening, but Even is confident and happy (and well… manic). Still, the way he grabs Isak’s face before laying a quick, solid smooch on him? Swoon. You know Isak was wondering how he was going to introduce Even to Eskild and Noora, what exactly he was going to say (what did Even tell them before Isak walked in???) and then Even swooped in and planted a kiss on him and it’s like, well, that probably says it all, doesn’t it.

This is a good way to clinch that things have changed, too. Even isn’t going to run from this relationship this time around, he’s making more of a commitment. At least this is what I felt - I’m sure you could still have doubts about him, as many viewers did, but man, I felt sure from this moment that Even wasn’t going to bail like before.

Okay, it’s going to bug me what Even brushes away on Isak’s face. I assume it was some cooking ingredient, butter or oil or whatever, that Even got on Isak’s face when he put his hand there to kiss him. I have a lot of feelings about that little gesture, though! It’s so simple but such a sweet thing, just a tiny expression of taking care of someone. It’s so fond and domestic that it makes my heart swell. Even Bech Næsheim loves Isak Valtersen a whole lot, guys.

This exchange with the good morning kiss is shot over Eskild’s shoulder, and it gives you the impression of watching it through Eskild’s eyes. Imagine looking at this 17-year-old kid who you’ve known mostly as closeted and grumpy and miserable, who you let sleep in your basement and then move in with you because he didn’t want to go home, who’s been struggling just to acknowledge when a man is attractive, and here he’s got this very attractive man staying overnight and kissing him in front of other people. It’s like watching a butterfly break out of its cocoon. How happy and proud must Eskild have been of Isak in this scene! I mean, even if he’s still befuddled and dazed, Isak also just let Even kiss him in front of other people. That’s what we call character development.

Even making a ton of food for breakfast is very sweet, what a thoughtful boyfriend, but of course it takes on a new context once you know Even is manic. This was one of the little clues that people picked up on and that stood out to me. He doesn’t make just one or two dishes for breakfast, he makes everything. 

Honestly Even makes me really sad throughout this episode. I think he got it into his mind that making everything for breakfast was a romantic comedy thing to do. I mean ... it literally is. He gets some of his ideas in this episode straight from Pretty Woman, including this one from a part where Richard Gere orders everything on the menu for Julia Roberts; he remembered that scene and wanted to make his own version of it, and because he’s manic he took it further than it needed to be. And cooking a lot of breakfast isn’t a huge deal, but unfortunately it’s going to escalate.

Henrik does some of his best acting in this episode. A lot of it is related to him conveying mania but there’s also how wonderfully smitten he is with Isak. Look at how Even glances toward Isak while Noora is talking! Just lovely, taking in Isak in a way that’s casual but conveys his affection. Of course Isak is having a Moment but Even is, too. Even just got to sleep with the boy he’s been pining over for months. He looks at him so fondly. He has this slight smile on his face, like he’s just so thrilled to see Isak, and that he just wants to make Isak so happy.

Both Noora and Eskild shoot some looks at Isak, too. Noora realizes that Isak and Even probably want to be alone, so she tries to make an excuse for her and Eskild to leave. Eskild, I think, is still monitoring Isak’s reactions, making sure he’s okay with everything, taking in his godkitten’s emotions on this fine Saturday.

God, they’re all so cute. My heart grows a couple of sizes just watching this scene. I would give anything for more domestic snippets of Kollektivet + Even just hanging around on a lazy afternoon. I am happy that Evak got their own place in S4 since the flat was overcrowded and you know Even was over there constantly so it was like five people lived there, and the Evak love nest turned out to be a tiny domestic paradise. But I wish we could have seen more of this awesome Kollektivet dynamic before Isak moved out.

Lol, Noora is seriously checking out Even. She’s even more shameless than Eskild here.

Noora and Eskild are leaving to do “yoga.” Water yoga. What do you think they actually did? Grabbed coffee and gossiped about Evak?

Isak knows shit is up, and I’m pretty sure Even realizes there is no water yoga awaiting Isak’s roommates, but he’s just amused and delighted to get more alone time with his boy so he’s going to play along.

Eskild and Noora kind of dawdle out the door, knowing they should go but still wanting to see more, more! Noora gives Isak a big beam before she leaves and Eskild touches Isak on the stomach. They’re both so thrilled with this development. 

Even paraphrases Pretty Woman at Isak (“I didn’t know what you’d like so I made everything) and then quizzes Isak on what film it is. But when Isak is confused, Even doesn’t explain, give a hint, or pursue the question further. He just moves on. Again, a small moment. But it’s a clue as to how Even’s mind might be racing from topic to topic.

Even blowing on the eggs and then giving Isak a taste test - how gallant of him. He’s just so pleased and wants to do all these nice things for Isak, treat him to good food, sex, spoil him in all ways.

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, BEST OTP BEST BEST

This is Even’s dad’s recipe according to Julie’s script. I really want to know a lot more about Even’s parents and family life. They seem to be generally supportive of him, his sexuality, and his mental illness, or at least we don’t hear about any major problems with how they treat Even, but there’s so much more we could’ve known about his home life.

After I saw this scene I made scrambled eggs with sour cream a few times, and they were pretty good. Thanks, Even!

Let’s all admire that one jaunty curl hanging against Henrik’s forehead.

Isak’s reaction to everything is so good, I’m proud of him. He doesn’t get swayed by Even being all affectionate and cooking breakfast; he stands his ground and pushes Even about the state of their relationship, getting out his concerns, not being afraid to show what makes him less happy. He may have lost his chill when Even showed up at his door last night, but the morning after, he’s going to make sure they talk a bit. The shock of Even not being in his bed reminded him that, oh yeah, things between them are very uncertain and Even has been leaving him hanging for the last few weeks. Isak’s in too deep. This isn’t a casual thing. He cares for Even so much, so he needs to make sure Even is on the same page.

I don’t think Even realizes that Isak was pretty upset when Even wasn’t there. It might be because he’s manic right now, and that he cares for Isak so much that obviously Even wasn’t going to walk out on him. In his mind, the idea is ridiculous, so he’s trying to reassure Isak that he was here the whole time.

Isak is not reassured though, he has plenty more questions. Like “Does Sonja know where you are?” which is really code for “Are you still together with Sonja?”

Even responds so quickly that he’s not with Sonja. So as I stated in the last recap, I think he was broken up with her well before last night, and Isak was under the impression they were still together because of the kiss. But I think the kiss was a one-off or temporary thing. 

Again, round of applause for Isak for not dropping the subject, for continuing to push the topic of Sonja and letting Even know he can’t just forget about her.

I bet Even realizes during this scene that Isak saw him kissing Sonja. I wonder if he heard the rumors going around school that there was a fight at Emma’s party, between Isak and Mahdi, and that gave him suspicions. Because that would mean Isak was there, at the same party, and Isak had some reason he was pissed and physically lashing out at people, and it could possibly be related to Even dumping him or Isak seeing him and Sonja together. This just confirms that Isak knew all about it. You can see Even react to this information, that it’s probably something he feels bad about and that it’s something he doesn’t really want to talk about, or explain more about his thing with Sonja, but Isak’s called him out on it.

Even’s rant about Sonja is … off-putting. Sure, she’s his ex, and we saw them fight. But we also saw them be kissy and affectionate together. And Even is the one who’s dumped her, who cheated on her. It seems like a lot of anger directed toward her when we haven’t seen her do anything particularly wrong at this point, other than get on Even’s case about drinking too much beer in episode 4. But of course it makes more sense when you realize her attitude toward his mental illness.

Also, Even’s answer to Isak’s query isn’t really an answer? Isak wants to make sure that Sonja isn’t still in the picture and Even goes off on her personality and their problems. Which … isn’t really a yes or no. There’s no clear answer to why Even got back together with Sonja, or why she would have this control over him in this first place. This scene gave me a prickle of unease because something’s clearly going on with Even that we don’t know yet. I don’t think Isak really comprehends what Even’s talking about, either, just that his final point - that she can’t know what Even feels - is something he understands on a universal level, and an area where Even needs his support.

Notice that Even does most of this rant turned away from Isak, talking with his back to him, like he’s still hiding something. We can’t fully see his face or his expressions. That’s totally deliberate of Julie. Even could have been talking with Isak directly, with eye contact, but of course she wants to create the sense that something’s still off, there’s something we’re not getting. That Even isn’t letting Isak (or us) in on everything. We really don’t see his face at all for some of this scene. It’s only when he looks back to Isak, asking if he understands, that we see his face again. Because that’s when Even is inviting Isak in, not trying to keep him away from things he doesn’t want Isak to know.

Of course, Even’s rant makes a lot more sense after the hotel scene, and it’s a huge key to understanding his character and his relationship with Sonja. Even is used to relying on Sonja for “control” - as a presumably neurotypical person, her judgment can be trusted, while Even’s is doubted because of his mental illness. Their relationship is such that Sonja is the one who calls the shots and tells Even what he’s feeling. It’s gone on so long that Even now doubts himself and his own judgment and defers to Sonja’s. “Everything she says is true” - does he really think that? Or is he just used to Sonja’s judgment being “right” no matter if he agrees?

But he’s tired of it, and he wants some independence. And I think his feelings for Isak are that deep that they’re the catalyst for not wanting to rely on her judgment anymore. She’s telling him that his feelings for Isak are fake and he knows they’re not in his heart.(Though honestly, I think it’s likely that some part of him did kind of question whether Sonja was right about his feelings for Isak not being real. His rant gives me the vibe that her words wormed his way inside his head and he’s frustrated over that. Ultimately his feelings for Isak were so strong and vivid that he trusted them instead of her opinion. He could feel them and know they were real and that overpowered the doubts.)

But this is part of why Even ran hot and cold at first, why he was flirting with Isak while backing off and being with Sonja. His romantic feelings for Sonja have faded a lot, and he knows they don’t work as a couple. But Sonja has been there for him through the worst times, and she’s safe, she’s someone he can lean on. Dumping Sonja means he has to start relying more on his own judgment. And for someone who isn’t used to trusting his own mind, that’s scary.

My interpretation is this: Sonja told Even some version of what she tells Isak at the end of the episode - that Even’s feelings for Isak are not real and are just the result of his mania/mental illness. She did not really believe that Even was breaking up with her for good. It was just temporary and he’d come back to her once his manic episode had ended. When she kissed him at Emma’s party, it was under the assumption that they weren’t really done. Maybe she was even aware that Isak was no longer in the picture - it’s possible she and Even were still in contact, or Emma told Sonja that Even was at the party alone and not with Isak. Who knows! Many options. But I really think that Sonja doubted the veracity of Even’s feelings for Isak, manifesting in her kissing him at the party, and that’s what he’s addressing in his rant about her here, even if Isak can’t know that’s what it’s about. And this is why he chooses to tell Isak about these qualities of Sonja now, even though it seems almost like a tangent. I think they have a lot to do with his relationship with Isak, specifically - it’s not just random. Sonja has said things about Even’s feelings for Isak that are weighing on Even’s mind.

This sounds like a pretty harsh take on Sonja, so just to reiterate: I really like her as a character, I think she’s sympathetic and overall a good person. But she does have this big flaw.

Even looking back at Isak after his rant is so meaningful. He needs Isak to understand him. It’s so important to him that Isak get what Even is saying, even if Even isn’t being upfront about everything. Isak has to believe him that Even knows his own feelings, and that those feelings are for Isak. And even if Isak doesn’t know everything, Isak does get it. He gets that Even needs him to understand.

Again, Henrik does some good acting here. His rant is strikingly angry, totally different from his softness with Isak a moment before. Then he turns back to Isak, and that one little question and one look are super vulnerable. It’s a deft shift from emotion to emotion.

Let’s talk about chemistry again, because wow. Look at Tarjei swallowing when Henrik approaches, look at Henrik roaming his eyes over Tarjei’s whole face. These are two actors whose entire bodies are in sync with each other. They’re acting with everything they have.

Even literally closes the distance as they wrap up the tough part of this conversation that might push them apart, and they now can just be together again. He looks Isak up and down, vulnerable. He pushes his forehead against Isak’s and is sure to rub their noses together - their shared gesture of intimacy. He swallows before going into this big confession.

I love how you can hear every breath and every swallow over the background hum of the radio. Like we are right there in the thick of this private moment.

Even’s confession is so raw and intimate. Fragile. He’s really sticking his heart out there. He’s telling Isak that Isak is the one, he may have been with Sonja for years but what he feels with Isak is something special. It’s very, very real.

Again, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Even says this right after talking about Sonja thinking she knows what Even feels. Like it’s not just a romantic confession, but I believe it’s a refutation of what Sonja has said. She said Even’s feelings weren’t real. Even is saying they’re so real they’re not like anything else he’s felt before. Even is making sure Isak doesn’t just hear this, but that he feels it. Feels Even’s closeness, how Even looks at him so intently before and while he says this.

And Isak’s voice drops to a whisper - because this is just between the two of them - as if this emotion is so strong that he’s almost overcome with its power (good job on this delivery, Tarjei) and says he feels the same way. This is something special between them, on both sides. And then they kiss. Isak being able to be so candid and open about his romantic feelings for a boy is truly a gift. 

I 100% think it’s justified to have the camera on Isak’s face during this incredibly pivotal moment. But damn, don’t you wish you could have seen Even’s face reacting to Isak confirming his own feelings?

This kiss is beautiful, by the way. The good morning kiss was casual, easy, instantaneous. This kiss is coming after a period of some tension, and now their emotions and feelings for each other are being laid bare, it’s so delicate. They don’t kiss right away; there’s a pause as it’s like they’re breaking a spell.

When they break away, there’s that intimate little nose rub again, and Isak clearly looks ready for more kissing. Or more than kissing. He wants Even soooo much, he’s pushing his face forward for another kiss. 

Of course, St Gabrielle intervenes, and Even gets distracted from further makeouts. Even, you’re killing Isak here. The way Even turns his head away at first? A tease.

Now here’s where I really want to praise the hell out of Henrik’s acting in this scene. The first time I watched this scene, it was in unsubtitled Norwegian. Because frankly, how could I possibly wait for subtitles after that glorious finale of episode 7? I was hooked on this story, no fucking way I was waiting any longer than I had to for an update. I just watched the clips on the official website and read a transcript afterwards. And during this scene, without having any idea what they were talking about, I knew what was up with Even. I could tell just from Henrik’s acting (and Julie’s directing, of course). His body language, his facial expressions. The way he easily and rapidly shifted between moods. The fact that Even just seemed cranked up to 11 - this was an Even who seemed vibrating with energy. Compare him to the baseline Even of say, episode 2, when he’s hanging out and smoking and cooking with Isak. Even is an extroverted, charismatic guy, but this seemed to be … extra. Honestly, the first time I saw this scene? The cuteness of the Gabrielle lip sync-a-thon was overshadowed by this queasy feeling I couldn’t shake. I fucking knew he was bipolar and that he was having a manic episode. And again, that was without the context of their conversation. Henrik nailed it here. Even here is not a caricature, he’s still Even, he’s just … more. A little too much.

And of course then I read the transcript and holy shit, is there a ton of foreshadowing in this scene.

Time to talk about 5 fine frøkner! First of all, let’s marvel at what a huge success this song was. From what I understand, it was already a hit by the time this scene aired, but this clip just made the song so iconic and associated with Skam? They played it at award shows when Skam was being recognized. They played it at gay pride parades (and I know it was a hit before Skam but you can’t tell me Skam didn’t make it more of an anthem). Have you seen those Spotify stats? 

After being featured in an episode in the third season, Gabrielle's song "5 fine frøkner" saw a 3,018 percent increase in listening on Spotify, with over 13 million streams and, at one point, rising to eighth place on the Swedish top music rankings.

Damn.

Julie originally wanted several other songs in place. One was “Joyride” by Roxette, as Henrik mentioned in an interview. But they couldn’t get the rights and had to use a Norwegian song. Julie suggested “Take on Me” by A-ha, which is a hugely well known song and a karaoke classic, that happens to be by a Norwegian band, but they decided it was too cliche? (”Take on Me” has one of the most iconic music videos ever, by the way.) In the script she also has a note about Maroon 5, though not a specific song. They then settled on “5 fine frøkner” which Henrik didn’t want to do at first because it had been everywhere like Despacito, lmao. 

Can you imagine if those songs were used instead??? One of the most beloved Evak scenes could have had a totally different feel.

I don’t know how I feel about “Joyride” being used, although I adore the idea of Even imitating the whistling at 1:08. And it’s great fun and captures the feeling of getting on this wild journey called love together. Join the joyride, Isak! But I don’t know if it’s be as catchy to lip sync. Plus “Hello, you fool, I love you,” as adorable as that would have been to see Even mouth to Isak … it seems a little forward??? Like even in the context of lip syncing pop song lyrics, that’s got to seem loaded given their confessions a moment previously, and I think maybe it would’ve been better for Even not to sing “I love you” in this situation.

Now, “Take on Me” - that one could’ve been amazing. I am a fan of that one as an alternate version. Tell me it wouldn’t have been super fun to watch Even mimic the falsetto in the chorus. Or “I’ll be coming for your love, okay?” (Idk, that seems less loaded than saying “I love you” directly, but STILL ADORABLE.) However, it’s still a little ominous and provides some foreshadowing - Even would lip sync that he’ll be gone in a day or two...

However, despite these other options, I think Gabrielle’s 5 fine frøkner was the best option. It’s a newer song, less tied to nostalgia or pop culture and therefore more free to become the Evak song since it has fewer past associations, if you follow me. (I mean,  I just heard “Take on Me” used prominently in Deadpool 2.) And the lyrics are perfect for this scene. Fitting and cute in the moment, ominous foreshadowing in the larger picture.

Even is so delighted when that opening starts to play, and it takes Isak a few moments to break out of his Even haze and recognize that there’s a song playing on the radio and that there are like, other people and things in the world besides him and Even at this moment.

AGAIN, LET’S ADMIRE THAT PERFECT CURL. And Even’s little smile and head bop to Gabrielle.

Isak seriously cannot believe this shit. Gabrielle is breaking up his makeout-maybe-more with Even. Fucking Gabrielle of all people.

This is such a departure from Even as we knew him, too. It’s almost like the beginning of the end of Isak’s more idealized perspective of him. Even’s past behavior aside, he’s been the cool guy, the hip artist, the film expert. He’s put Isak on to both Nas and Romeo + Juliet. Here we see a less cool side of Even. An Even dressed down, his hair not perfectly styled. An Even who turns out to be a Gabrielle fan. Like this is a relatively small trait but it’s showing us that there are hidden sides to Even that we might not expect, that he’s not all Norwegian James Dean swagger and artful blunts behind the ear.

But also, despite Isak’s protests, this is really cool for him to experience! Gabrielle isn’t music you listen to when you want to feel tough, like N.W.A. Even is someone who’s just being himself, who has interests that don’t fit into the mold of stereotypical boy that Isak was trying to emulate. It’s great for Isak to recognize that in someone he’s so into, as it will help him incorporate that attitude into his own life (and not, say, modify his answers on an online test to seem less gay).

Isak tries to make a joke about hashtags and roll his eyes at Even, and instead gives away the depth of his feelings. Isak, you dork.

“Mannen i mitt liv” is literally “man of my life” but translates more into “man of my dreams” in English. But yeah, Even is That Guy for Isak.

If you watch carefully, you can see Even’s eyebrows fly up when Isak calls him “mannen i mitt liv.” He’s so happy about it. Really, from Even’s perspective, remember what happened with Mikael, remember that he’s given up this four-year relationship to be with Isak, remember that he’s been keeping himself away from Isak because of what Isak said about mentally ill people. Now think about what it must mean for Isak to let it slip that he considers Even the man of his dreams. He teases Isak, because that’s what Even does, but Even is so damn overjoyed.

Isak keeps moving his head in exasperation at Even making a big deal out of his comment, although he’s a little amused, he’s trying to downplay it. Ohhh, it’s just about the hashtag! He doesn’t seem panicked or anything though, just maybe a little embarrassed that he put his heart on his sleeve when he didn’t mean it. Get used to it, Isak. You’re going to love it.

And indeed, Isak looks so warm and fond of Even even when he’s being teased. You know he damn well meant it.

This little kiss, ahhhh! I love it! Even goes in for it and Isak is like, a little stunned and full of affection. Even gets in a quick nose boop. They’re both sooooo happy and rapturous about each other. I feel okay saying they’re in love at this point. I’m not sure Isak realizes this is full-on love yet, but it’s sure as hell something deep to him, and he’s falling faster with every second. (I think Even totally loves Isak and knows it at this point, though.)

Tarjei swallows and then Henrik swallows like right after him, again, that is some chemistry. They’re clearly responding to each other and feeding off each other’s body language.

Even wants Isak to say the man of my life part again. It meant that much to him. Even has gone through so much shit and has been pining after Isak for months, and now Isak is saying that Even is essentially his perfect guy. How amazing would that feel???

I guess less amazing if you think about precarious Even’s situation is, and how he must know it, that it all could come crashing down once his bipolar disorder makes itself known or Isak finds out.

NAH I’M NOT GOING TO RUIN THIS BEAUTIFUL MOMENT, IT’S AMAZING

Isak openly tells Even he’s the man of his life, and again, character development, that he can make such romantic statements to another boy. That he’s putting everything out there for Even. I love that his voice is lowered, too. Like a whisper. It’s more intimate that way. Not a performance. Just for Even’s ears.

Kiss! Right as the music swells, like a Hollywood smooch.

Even can’t keep himself from smiling and dancing. Isak tolerates it because he is in love with this goofball.

I love Isak’s slight shyness in this scene, like he’s so happy but doesn’t know what to do with himself, or how to be so open about it.

Look at Even pouting and upping his dance after Isak says the song is shit. He just takes it as a challenge. Isak gets in an adorable little head bob and Even counts that as a victory. 

Part of me wishes the camera pulled back so we could have full view of Even’s dance moves, but it’s truly for the best that he’s all the way in Isak’s face, because this is such a close, connected moment for them. We don’t need any distance.

When we cut to Even fixated on Isak’s face at the end … hooo boy. Get you someone who looks at you like that.

For real, look at Even trailing his fingers along Isak’s face and cupping his neck and jaw. Look how completely gone Isak is. Look how content and warm Even looks, look at how he teases Isak a little with the movement of his face.

There are little cuts in this scene that make it clear that this was more than one take or that some stuff has been edited out. Like Even is right in Isak’s space touching his face and then he’s suddenly standing back not touching him. It kind of muddles the perception of time just a bit, if you’re paying attention, because obviously this song is really on the radio and they can hear it, but their actions are not totally in line with how the song is progressing, if you feel me? And that’s probably just because Julie wanted to splice together the cutest or best takes but I like it because it’s just slightly hazy and dreamlike. Not on the “Head Over Heels” level by any means, but enough that things are a little cinematic. We’re using the best takes, and Isak is so swept off his feet that it makes sense for it to be a more like a movie, a dream.

I really want to know how much direction Julie gave Henrik for this Gabrielle scene, because he’s so charming in it. Bravo if he was just winging his dance moves. 

I love that you can vaguely hear Even mouthing the lyrics at a certain point. And that he teases Isak again and gets all up in his face. (I also love that Henrik didn’t completely know the lyrics, it’s realistic.)

Him touching Isak’s face in tune with the song!!!! What a charmer!!!

Love that shocked face he makes when he pulls back, and that Isak mouths something back and squirms because he is just that turned on. (It looks like he mouths “me?” but of course that’s in English. But I think “meg?” would look the same? Norwegians, feel free to weigh in on what Isak is mouthing.)

Isak finally having enough of this and going in for a kiss, and Even accepting it ferociously, but still wanting to pull back and dance and sing and smile a little.

Man, this scene is SO cute even after watching it a million times, but yeah, the first time I saw it, what stuck with me was the things that were lurking beneath the surface. The way we linger on Even’s face, the music continuing to play … somehow there’s just a beat off of it.

But of course the lyrics!!! The lyrics! All about how “you make me go up in smoke” - obviously a cute declaration of Even’s passion for Isak, but also foreshadowing as to his mania. This is why “5 fine frøkner” was a perfect song. That beautiful double meaning.

That breakfast totally got burned. Or it got cold while Isak and Even found they were hungry, just ... not for food.

I’m just imagining Isak and Even dry humping against the counter and Linn wanders in, makes a bowl of cereal, and wanders out without comment or anyone noticing.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure this is one of the scenes that most garnered attention on social media and got newbies to watch Skam, other than the episode 5 cuddle scene. The fandom lost its shit after this scene aired. We were all blessed with Evak’s power and chemistry and cuteness. And also worried and fervently debating whether or not Even was mentally ill. It was a hell of a time.

Clip 2 - Isak and Sana and religion

Isak is typing away at his laptop. Doing his homework because he was obviously, ahem, preoccupied this weekend.

He gets a text from his dad, who’s snapped because Isak’s been avoiding him. The following exchange is pretty illuminating as to that dynamic. Isak’s dad has been pretty polite up til now in texts - I feel like he’s been making a concentrated effort to reconnect with his son. He knows Isak is unhappy with him because he left Isak’s mom. You can read into his texts a sense of over-politeness, IMO. But here, unable to get through to Isak, he snaps and defends his actions. He says there was nothing he could do for Isak’s mom and that he’s doing the best he can. In it he acknowledges Isak’s feelings of disappointment and anger; however, he doesn’t really apologize or acknowledge he could have done better.

Isak also is done with his dad, and taps out a rather sporadic text. Frankly, it’s kind of telling that he comes out to his dad so easily. First of all, this is the easiest it’s been for Isak to tell anyone about Even - and I do think Isak expects his dad to be OK with him being gay, as he said to Even in episode 5, but I also think that it’s a mark of how fed up he is with his dad and how little he cares about his opinion? I mean, he’s basically throwing his relationship with Even in his dad’s face, in a way. Not to upset him because of his dad’s homophobia, but to lay this huge fact on him without warning. Fine, Dad, you want me to go with you to the concert? I’m going to take my boyfriend!!! 

And Isak’s temper is maybe in action here, because he does this without really thinking and out of spite, when for many people this would be a huge life moment. It was for Isak when he came out to his friends. It will be when he comes out to his mom.

The line about Even being a boy’s name is so funny. Tarjei came up with it on set, bless him. I know it’s because the word Isak uses for boyfriend is gender neutral in Norwegian (I think), but it’s also so dramatic, in a way. Just to drive it home that Isak is in fact in a gay relationship. Gay! Super gay, dad! Get the message!

Also, the only way Isak thought he might get through this concert with his parents is by bringing Even along.

Isak takes a moment after he sends the text, and I’m sure he’s thinking, oh, I really just did that, but it still seems like he’s more guided by anger that anything. He’s just so pissed at his dad. How dare his dad call him out when his dad left them and let them down? What right does his dad have to scold Isak for his behavior when his own is awful?

I feel like Isak wasn’t super close with his dad, maybe even before his dad left. He never really seems to miss him the way he misses his mom? That might be because his dad has disappointed him and he no longer cares, but who knows what their relationship was like before things went to hell?

Dad thinks Isak might be kidding and I mean, I don’t totally blame him, that was a thing Isak dropped out of nowhere. To his credit, Papa Valtersen seems fine with his son dating another boy, so that’s one thing he has going for him. However, he says Isak’s mom gets stressed very quickly, basically implying that bring his boyfriend will upset Isak’s mom. Implying that his mom is homophobic and will not approve. More or less suggesting that it might not be a good idea to bring Even to the concert.

You can imagine what the implication that having a boyfriend would stress Isak’s mom would do to Isak - the last thing he needs to think about is his mom’s possible rejection. I think you can see it in his face - he starts to type out a whatever reaction to the text, but Isak does look a little shaken. It’s subtle but there. So the following conversation with Sana comes at a really good time for him. It would be good at any time, but especially when Isak’s dad has just planted doubts on whether Isak’s mom would accept Isak’s sexuality.

Isak tells Sana he forgot to do the assignment. I mean, Isak did study plenty of biology this weekend! Just ... not in the way he was supposed to.

Isak is so focused on trying to get his assignment done that he doesn’t really take in the entirety of what Sana’s trying to say. Sana is the one who’s actually nervous and trying to figure out what to say.

She sent Isak a link. Isak isn’t paying that much attention, he didn’t see it. Who has time to look at links when you have an Even in your bed?

Iman does some good acting here, with how she struggles to get out what she wants to say, how to approach the topic, how she admits she was wrong. It would be so much easier if Isak had seen the article! You can see her not really wanting to explain the article or not knowing how to broach the subject in a completely natural way, but she’s trying. (From the script: “Sana wishes he had read it so she doesn’t have to talk about it.” Iman displays that perfectly here.)

When Sana says the article is about evolution and homosexuality, that’s what finally gets Isak’s attention. He looks at her, but then looks away and doesn’t say anything. Probably a little tense over the topic being raised again. He knows why she’s bringing it up. He knows how this conversation went last time.

Sana says, “I’m very seldom wrong” (lol) but admits that she was wrong this time. Because she knows this is not some random argument they had, but that this is important to Isak. Because Sana may have a tough exterior, but she’s a kind person at heart.

Isak looks at her when she starts to talk about how she was wrong. He smiles just a little to himself, because he sees this for what it is. It’s not just an apology for Sana being wrong, factually; it’s an acknowledgment that she regrets what she said. She understands why he was asking. It’s pretty great of her that she remembered this specific conversation from weeks ago and considered the effect it would have on Isak, once the rumors started swirling and she realized he was probably gay.

Isak takes a moment and then finally responds to her, asking about Islam. Because that’s the issue that’s hanging between them. As Julie puts it in the script, “there’s still an Islamic elephant in the room.” Sana may want to apologize for saying the wrong thing and not wanting to hurt him, but are they cool? Is she okay with him being gay because of her religion? This issue is bigger than Isak and Sana. The topic of homosexuality as influenced by organized religion has very wide-reaching effects, greater than any two people. And Isak’s concern was that Islam, as a religion, is against gay people. Sana might be OK with him personally, but Islam might not. 

Sana gets sturdier here, because it’s hard for her to admit she’s wrong, but it’s easier for her to speak about her religion because her faith is strong. I wouldn’t say she gets annoyed here even though Isak is still kind of confronting her about her religion. I think she wants to stand up for both of them: she wants to represent her faith well and help Isak. Because Isak’s question really is one of vulnerability. (And Sana herself asks why Islam has to be against gay people in S4, so there’s something to unpack with her own feelings toward it.) But she really finds her voice here, and she’s giving Isak advice not to listen to the people who use religion to hate.

Isak doesn’t say anything else, but wow, he is moved by this. This is exactly what he needed, especially regarding the topic of his mom. She probably doesn’t even realize what a godsend her words really were. She’s given Isak the strength to come out to his mom, despite her religious views.

In the script, Julie refers to the biology teacher as “Boobs,” and it’s pretty fucking funny reading it for this highly touching moment to suddenly be cut off by a line from a character called Boobs. 

Clip 3 - Even meets the boy squad, Magnus hugs ensue

Most of this scene up until Sonja calls was improvised. It’s a really adorable scene, and it makes you wonder who came up with stuff like Even suddenly being like “it’s for the best you guys weren’t there 😏” Like imagine that Henrik just dropped that shit in there and the reactions of the other boys were genuine. (They probably planned it out on set, it’s just amusing to consider.)

The boys are planning to go out for pizza. They’re trying to convince Isak, who says he can’t skip class. Can’t he study at home, the boys ask? Well, no, Isak cannot study at home. He says it’s because you do better by attending class, but somehow I think this has something to do with Isak having an Even at home and knowing full well that he won’t be able to study there. He can’t sex in class, he has to sex at home; therefore he can’t study at home, he has to study in class.

But also I like that Isak is studious. Nerd.

The boys are laughing and WTFing at Isak’s comment about studying in class - he’s laughing too so he knows he’s being ridiculous - but his expression suddenly changes when he spots Even coming up the stairs. Coming toward them. Him and his friends.

It’s the moment of truth! His two worlds are going to collide; Isak is going to have to introduce Even. He must be so nervous about it - are his friends going to approve of Even? Will they get along? How does he act with Even in front of his friends? They’re a romantic couple but surely Even isn’t like, expecting a kiss or anything? In public???

Even, meanwhile, glances side to side, before stopping and greeting the boys. He doesn’t pretend like he doesn’t know Isak or anything, he comes right up to them. However, he waits for Isak to make the first move and introduce them. He doesn’t go in for a kiss or hug or anything, he just waits.

Meanwhile, the boys pause and look expectantly. Who is this dude? Magnus especially is starstruck. (Bi Magnus headcanon, activate!)

Isak knows he has to say something so he says, simply, that this is Even. Not Even-my-boyfriend or anything like that. Just Even. Because the boys will know and hopefully they can connect the dots. Isak looks kind of shy and unsure of himself, but he does it! Good job, buddy! Proud of you!

The boys are great and shake hands with Even, they don’t make a big deal out of Even in himself. As has been noted, Jonas introduces himself as Marlon, lmao, and Magnus thinks Even is Eivind at first.

As Even asks the boys what’s up, Isak just kind of stands there awkwardly and looks toward the ground. He’s still shy and not comfortable with this being-gay-in-public thing.

Even, however, is not shy. He looks like a fucking prince, and he’s looking at Isak like he’s a five-course meal. For real, check out that look he gives Isak right there! In public!!! His eyes are glowing, he gives him this little smile. And even Isak, being shy, can’t help but smile a little back. Very small, very shy, but he’s internally glowing. 

It is really something how Isak and Even find each other even when they’re in groups of other people. They have these private looks, you can feel their attention gravitating toward each other. That’s a mark of great chemistry and of true attraction between the characters. It’s very astute of Julie to include this detail time after time. Because that’s really how it is when you have a crush, right? You can’t help but look their way.

And this is such a private little glimpse between them. So much is said in that look, just how happy they are to be with each other, happy and blushy at all the stuff they’ve been up to in the last few days. As the boys keep talking, they’re in their own little world.

Magnus has an OH SHIT moment that this is Even, not Eivind. Isak’s Even!!! The guy who was coming to the apartment on Friday!!! Jonas and Isak are like, goddamn our friend is dumb. Isak is like cool, now Magnus is going to make a big deal out of this.

You can see Isak still trying to retain a semblance of casual and cool until Magnus is like, this is the guy you threw us out for, right? Magnus ruins everything, but he’s so earnest about it.

LMAO I love Tarjei’s reaction to this, his utterly exasperated face. That’s a good face.

Magnus makes sure to call Even handsome, hmmMMM (bi Magnus rise) and Isak weakly puts up a protest that he didn’t throw them out, while Even looks on, at first baffled, then amused. Look how fond Even is! He’s so happy that he was worthy of Isak kicking out his friends. That for all the cool Isak was playing it with Chiller hjemme, he was just as desperate to see Even as Even was to see him.

And look at that malfunctioning wink he gives! He’s adorable. Like you know he’s thinking how lucky he is that he gets to be with Isak, that he’s so happy at this moment in time.

The way Tarjei plays Isak’s feeble protests about throwing out his friends is so cute. He’s almost a little squeaky, his body language is young.

Even is like, wow, I guess this is a good time to drop in that we totally had sex.

I want to highlight Mahdi’s reaction, because he is fucking delighted by this news.

Isak is a little shocked, a little embarrassed, because holy shit Even is talking about their sex life in front of his friends?? But he’s also like … oh yeah, Even and I had sex, and that’s pretty cool. AND everyone here is cool with it, and that’s also cool.

Headcanon: Magnus actually has no idea what Even meant by “it’s a good thing you guys weren’t there” but he’s going to laugh along with everyone else and ask Jonas about it later.

Magnus and Even hug when the boys leave and my soul ascends. It’s beautiful. It’s so sweet, Even looks so happy, Magnus is so lovable here, like he’s saying, welcome to the family! Adorable. Even Isak has to smile a little at that even though his phone is ringing. I love Magnus/Even hugs and I will die on the hill of that friendship.

Jonas doesn’t actually say much in this scene. Maybe just because Magnus running his mouth dominates the scene, but you could interpret it as Jonas being a little more cautious than the others, because he is Team Isak first and foremost and he wants to get a read on this guy who’s been running hot and cold with his friends the past few weeks. Can he trust Even? Like he’s not going to be a jerk or anything, Jonas is a chill guy, but he’s going to scope out Even and make sure he’s good enough for his bro Isak.

Man, Even’s mood changes so fast when Isak say it’s Sonja who’s calling. He goes into scarily efficient panic mode. He shuts that shit down fast. Imagine what’s going through his mind? He was just SO happy about meeting Isak’s friends and bragging about them boning, and now here’s Sonja as a reminder that she’s going to ruin everything.

I mean, from his perspective, I also get why he’d be annoyed? He’s broken up with her and she’s trying to interfere with his life. She’s trying to tell Isak personal, sensitive information about him, something that should be private and his story to tell. Now it is possible that she knew something more - for instance, maybe she had been contacted by Even’s parents because they were worried about him, as he hadn’t been home much. In that case, I think her contacting Isak is more justified, especially if Even wasn’t responding to her texts or calls. But the idea that she’s calling Isak just to tell him about Even’s mental illness is not great. It’s extra not great if she was going to at some point include the whole “he doesn’t really love you” bit of information.

Isak is of course flabbergasted not only by why Sonja is calling him, but how Even’s mood changed so fast. I remember people were making serial killer jokes after this scene and suggesting that Even’s big secret was that he was a murderer and I mean ... there’s an AU for you.

“She wants to control you.” Uhhh, what? Again, Isak is confused. Nothing Even is saying makes sense. Because Isak doesn’t know Sonja, how the hell can she “control” him? This is also just such an over-the-top thing to say. Even could have said something like, “She just can’t handle that I broke up with her,” to get Isak to not pay attention to her. But instead he’s making Sonja’s sound something a step above in terms of nefariousness, like she’s a Bond villain.

I like that little tongue gesture Henrik does here, it’s like a tip-off that Even is lying or hiding something. Also his eyes are locked onto Isak, as if trying to make sure Isak buys what Even is selling.

Isak is not buying what Even is selling. Instead, he is making a lot of memeable faces.

Why would Sonja control Isak, of all people? Because she does not like people who live free and are genuine, according to Even - a nod to Even maybe not taking his medication, perhaps? We never hear more about this or Even’s treatment plan regarding his mental illness. Or else it’s just a reference to Sonja trying to monitor stuff like Even drinking and smoking weed. In any case, it’s a strange, confusing statement.

Even just goes in for a kiss, taking Isak off guard. Which is probably the intent. Get Isak’s mind off the Sonja incident with Even affection. Put him at ease, show him Even’s feelings for him.

I don’t want to attribute everything Even does here to being manic, because Even does do some impulsive or TMI stuff when he’s not manic. I mean, one of the first things he said to Isak was about sucking dicks. Dude is not shy about posting sex pics to IG and post-coital tissues on YouTube. But I do think you can see how being manic may influenced his behavior in this scene. He drops a sex comment and kisses Isak in ways that seem impulsive. If the kitchen scene shows him exhibiting signs of mania, then this one does too, especially considering he must have booked the suite later that night, and his texts after this clip make him seem like his mind is racing.

Isak is super surprised by that kiss. They’re basically alone in the stairwell so he doesn’t really freak out, but you know he was startled and panicked by that. Not to mention Even’s very strange behavior and answers that don’t really answer anything.

Even tells him how hot he is. Again, a distraction. Again an attempt to show Isak how much he cares. Isak is very confused but also flattered and a little horny, let’s be real.

Put yourself in Even’s mind during this. Sonja is potentially about to ruin everything. I feel like Even was aware that maybe there was an expiration date on this relationship. It’s interesting because part of his behavior with the songs and emojis and suite seem like mania, it’s just too much. But some of it isn’t that abnormal for a teenager in love, someone who is head over heels and in the flush of a new relationship. And some of it feels like a kid who is scared to lose someone, so he overcompensates to make the most of the time they do have and to try to convince his boyfriend that he does love him. That if Sonja tries to say his feelings aren’t real, Even can convince Isak otherwise. He wants to hang on to Isak so much.

This was a huge week for theorizing as you might guess. I think some people were still believing that Even was a creep and a two-timer, but more people were coming around to the idea that he was mentally ill (and bipolar in particular). It made sense with the hints dropped throughout the season. With this clip I remember more certainty from the fandom that Even was manic, because even Isak seems thrown by Even’s strange behavior.

Clip 4 - The hotel scene that destroyed us

15:15 - 1:01

Here we fucking go!!!!

Listen, I can completely understand why the hotel scene is traumatizing and hard to watch for people. Because it traumatized me too. However, it’s one of my favorite scenes of the season nevertheless. Everything about it is superb.

I’m pretty sure this is one of the only Skam clips to feature not just a starting point, but an end point. Some of that is surely because of how the clip stretches over one night, but it also gives it kind of a foreboding feeling, personally? Like …. This clip has an end point. Something’s coming to an end. (And it’s also the title of the clip, calling attention to the period of time.)

If you were watching this season in real time, you can remember when the clip went up, the events were still “happening” in real time for hours afterwards and it made everyone freak out that Even was leaving the hotel naked that moment, Isak was wandering the streets that moment… 

We see Isak at Kaffebrenneriet. I’m not sure if it’s the KB that Henrik Holm worked at but I think Julie got the idea from that, just like she had Even work there in S4 because of Henrik. (Who remembers the fandom when Henrik was still working at KB and all of a sudden fans starting taking pictures of him at work?)

Isak is sitting there by himself, waiting for Even, looking out the window, until he starts to write a text to his mom. I feel like Isak was psyching himself up to write this text, it wasn’t spur of the moment. Especially with how long it was and how he seemed to know what to say, other than a few pauses.

But he’s writing this text message because of Sana! I mean, not just because of Sana, obviously, he has to come out to his mom eventually. But his talk with her has given him the courage to face this moment. He’s taking her words, about God creating everyone to be of equal worth, and applying them in this situation with his mom. That’s why he phrases it like this. He even hesitates just a little bit as he’s typing that part, as if he’s trying to remember what Sana said or phrase it similar to how she did.

He’s also writing this thinking that he and Even will be going to the Christmas concert together next week, and perhaps he wants to tell his mom ahead of time instead of springing it on her. Just in case she does get upset.

But actually, how much did Isak think that through? Because we know he thinks he’s better off without mentally ill people around him, and he’d be introducing Even to his mentally ill mom. That’s a HUGE step. Isak doesn’t know Even is mentally ill at this point; he’s counting on Even being OK with Isak’s mom and not thinking she’s weird. He’s counting on himself not to feel embarrassed or ashamed of her. So I do think the the concert comment had a lot to do with annoying his dad, but I wonder if, had they not been separated at the time, Isak would have really asked Even to go with him. I can see it both ways.

Again, he comes out to his mom by telling he’s been with a guy - what he has been doing. Not that he’s gay - what he is. I think it’s especially important in this case with his mom how he phrases this - perhaps he thinks it’s better that she not see him as inherently something she might not approve of. 

In the script, Isak writes that he thinks he’s gay. On the one hand, I like him making the shift and being able to say that about himself in a text to his mom, of all people, since that makes it even more of a pivotal character moment. But him saying it in terms of dating a guy rather than being gay is consistent with how he comes out to everyone else throughout the season.

It really hurts that Isak says, “Sorry if it makes you sad.” I totally get why he says that, considering his mom’s condition and his dad suggesting that knowledge of Isak’s boyfriend would make her “stressed,” but it still hurts. No kid should have to apologize to their parents for “Making them sad” just by existing and being gay.

“Hugs from Isak.” Babyyyyyyy.

He pauses before he sends the text. For understandable reasons. 

This is a really important moment in itself, obviously. Isak is reaching out to his mom on his own, after being on the receiving end of her Bible-quoting texts for God knows how long, and presumably not responding. He’s being proactive and so, so brave in this scene. He knows there is risk in telling his mom that he’s dating a guy, but he does it anyway, with a clear head and some conviction in what he’s saying.

Isak’s mom doesn’t respond until the following day. Do you think she needed some time to process the text? It’s possible she just didn’t check her phone right away, and narratively her response has more impact if it comes right when Isak is at a low point and could use some words of support. Plus, it would have interrupted the flow of the hotel scene. But within the story, she might have needed some time to take in the information. I mean, we know Isak’s mom loves and accepts him. But it is possible that the news took her by surprise, and that she wasn’t sure how to react. Or maybe she did get “stressed” and needed to think it over or consider how she would respond.

I love that we see this whole text being typed. It’s just a scene of a text being written. Most shows wouldn’t consider this worthy drama to depict, but Skam does. We go through this process with Isak and it’s so immersive. We are there in his mindset.

And actually, I never thought about how acting this out would be? Obviously you have to strike the right balance of emotion, but you have to type for a while so you probably have to memorize the text so you can type it out for the right length of time and perhaps with convincing finger placement. Isak pauses at several points so he probably needed to remember to include pauses, and then the graphics team syncs up the text on screen. But it seems like kind of a challenge for an actor. You need to make this mundane moment compelling.

Isak rests after sending this text (or not since he’s probably thinking of how she could respond) but not for long because Sonja texts him. Sonja waited until now to text him, by the way, not right after the phone call yesterday. Probably she just waited until she thought Isak and Even might no longer be together (physically). 

I don’t know if saying “Even’s Sonja” is just a simple way of identifying herself as the girl who Isak would know through Even, or if this is a way of saying she’s still with Even, not quite believing that they’re broken up.

This adds to the tension since Even is clearly hiding something at this point and Sonja knows something we don’t. However, Isak and we the viewers don’t really have time to process her text, because guess who knocks on the glass? It’s Even! And he and Isak are wearing like the exact same outfit, lmao. OK, not the same outfit, but similar colors. It’s like they’re mirroring each other here, with their outfits and the fact that they’re not just face to face, but there’s glass between them, making it seem even more like a reflection. 

Henrik is fucking adorable in this scene, by the way. Look at that little head tilt as if to say “come outside”! And Isak instantly relaxes and smiles, no thoughts of his mom or Sonja, because here is Even. Even who makes his heart warm and who is so happy to see him. Here to make everything better.

The heart!!!! It’s the cheesiest, most beautiful thing in the fucking world! They improvised this moment on set, apparently, and I don’t know if it was Julie or Henrik or Tarjei or random grip #2 but bless whoever had the bright idea for the heart.

HE DRAWS A LITTLE I INSIDE OF IT

HIS WINK IS THE CUTEST. This is possibly the most darling Even is in the entire series. He’s bursting with happiness and love.

Isak is sooooo happy, too, guys! He has this dreamy boyfriend who clearly adores him! After going through the motions with girls, here’s a real relationship with someone who’s showering him with affection.

Isak is not happy, however, when Even tries to kiss him outside, looking around to who might be nearby. He might have been OK with a peck in front of Eskild and Noora (and he obviously wasn’t expecting it then, either) but on the street? In front of like … other people??? It’s understandable. He’s newly out of the closet to anyone, to the people he truly cares about. But being casually out and affectionate to his boyfriend in front of total strangers, where anyone can see them … he’s not ready for that. And that’s fine, and Even seems a little confused, but he doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Isak actually leans in just a bit for a moment, as if to say, I want to kiss you but not here, and Even seems to go along with that. He’s so damn happy to see Isak that it’s fine. To be honest, I think his mind is racing at this point and he might not even understand what just happened, but it’s good, it’s cool. Isak is here, that means all is well. He just looks at Isak and smiles with fondness.

He’s also so excited about this suite. He kind of draws out telling Isak about it, just a bit, and Isak doesn’t take it too seriously for a second, until he sees that Even is not kidding.

Even does his Even thing and just walks away backwards, mysteriously. Isak is like, why you always walking backwards like that? This line is not in the script so I would not be surprised if Tarjei improvised it, lol. But that Even, doing the most. Always favoring the drama of his exit rather than where he’s going.

“Daddy I love him!” is the place where it cuts off and it might be coincidence, but here’sanother opportunity to say that both Isak and Even are in looooove. Like I think Even knows already, and maybe this night, before shit goes down, is where it really starts to sink in that it’s looooove for Isak. I also think it’s possible Isak starts to realize it once he thinks he’s lost Even. I don’t know! Their relationship is so rich with content, you could point to any number of scenes and be like, ah yes, that is where they fell in love/realized they were in love.

The Danish receptionist! One of the few adults on Skam, and a nod to the Danish Skam fandom.

Look at Isak kinda trailing behind Even and hanging back just a bit, watching Even confidently check into his suite. It has to be a little nerve-wracking, right? This is a big gesture. But also, look at him watch Even and be like, wow, my boyfriend got us a suite. He did this for us. Even is spoiling Isak.

So Even has his own credit/debit card and is using it to book the suite, right? Since he shows his ID, that means he didn’t borrow (or “borrow”) a card from his parents? How expensive is this suite, anyway? On the hotel website it says to contact the hotel for rates for their signature suites, which seems like a sign that it’s pricey. And checking Expedia, the regular suites were in like the $700-$800 range, so it’s got to be more than that.

They don’t really go into what happened with Even booking this expensive suite and apparently ordering lots of room service and champagne, but it’s something that really makes me wince. I’m not sure what would have happened, if Even’s parents took care of the expenses afterwards, or if Even had enough funds to cover it. 

By the way, this is the suite they stay in. It’s the Polar Suite at the Radisson Blu in Oslo, which I know has been visited by Skam fans. It looks like the Skam crew perhaps moved some of the furniture around for filming.

Even’s delivery of this whole conversation with the receptionist is cute, really. Isak watches him, a little proud and charmed. And a little like lmao, this is weird. But I really like the inclusion of this conversation, because it suggests that Even is manic but it’s not like … over the top. It’s harmless enough that you could just take Even as being a very extroverted, friendly guy, who likes films and Danish things and is really happy about getting to check into a hotel to bone his boyfriend. All of that is true! There’s just something about it, though, the intensity, the talkativeness. For me it was that the Even we saw in this episode was a few notches above normal, from what we’d seen of him in earlier episodes. More hyper. Burning more brightly. 

As you might guess, Brothers and Antichrist are well-regarded Danish films, and Stjerner uden hjerner (Stars without brains) is a flop and one of the worst films ever, apparently. Antichrist is directed by Lars von Trier who’s one of the starters of the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement, the manifesto of which is shown on the Evak apartment wall in S4. So Even’s probably a big fan.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Even’s film taste is really varied! He can talk about Romeo + Juliet and Pretty Woman, he has Star Wars posters, he likes artsy depressing Danish cinema. He knows his shit.

I want Even to talk Star Wars with whoever in Kollektivet owns that Star Wars mug we saw in episode 7.

I kind of feel like Even asking Isak whether he likes Denmark is similar to him prompting Isak to catch his Pretty Woman references in the kitchen scene or in the burgers scene. His mind is flying and he’s expecting Isak to keep up. I’m not sure Isak is keeping up with the Danish film talk but he’s charmed by Even’s enthusiasm.

EVEN INTRODUCING ISAK AS HIS BOYFRIEND, WOW. WOWWWW. Earlier this week Isak was like, “We’re not official.” Son, you thought wrong. 

I mean, this has to be a little awkward for Isak, too, because surely this Danish receptionist knows now that he and Even are going upstairs to, well, fuck, and though I’m sure she doesn’t care, for Isak his sexuality is being made public and I can see how, for a guy who’s afraid to kiss in public, it would be a little overwhelming? But also, this has got to be one of the best moments in Isak’s life. Even is showing him off as his boyfriend and talking about how handsome he is. Tarjei plays that blushing pride so well. You can almost ignore that Even’s being a little TMI - not that he’s saying anything inappropriate, but that he’s just volunteering more information than necessary, unprompted. And that he keeps talking. He could probably have talked to this receptionist all day if he didn’t have an Isak to take to a suite. 

Isak’s reaction to Even calling him beautiful (”Isn’t this man beautiful?”) is utterly fucking cute. He just rolls with it, plays with it. He’s having a good time.

ISN’T THIS MAN BEAUTIFUL? Magic words, let’s be real.

Even says, “Very beautiful” in Danish but you can understand why people would interpret it as “My beautiful” since he was just speaking in English and it sounds exactly the same. 

ISAK IS NUMB WITH HAPPINESS

NUMB WITH HAPPINESS

Oh, Isak. I’m glad you got to feel this good in this moment, at least. He’s with his cute boyfriend who’s showering him with gifts, affection, and compliments. He must feel like a king. How did he get so lucky to find someone like Even? That Even chose Isak?

THIS FUCKING SCENE

The way the scene in the elevator is shot is so beautiful. Isak and Even ascending, looking down at Oslo, leaving it behind to go to their own private world. The constant movement of the elevator, slow and steady, makes it feel so calm.

There’s this one shot where they both look out the window where I personally read it as some awkwardness, like they’ve been fooling around all week and getting boners from stuff that happened in the shower but there’s some nerves in like … getting a hotel room on their own and what might happen there. And this utterly beautiful kiss from Even on Isak’s cheek, which feels like he’s not just trying to show Isak how much he cares, but soothe him and make this less nerve-wracking. And then that hug while Even kisses the other cheek, before they finally, finally kiss each other on the mouth.

Isak raises his eyebrows before the kiss and it’s just. All so good. Like this moment is just as intimate as what follows. They couldn’t kiss in public, but they can kiss here, in their own little space, alone together. And with their outfits and the positioning of the kiss, they’ve never seemed so in sync, like they’re two halves of a whole.

Skam’s music game is at its best here. “High for This” by The Weeknd is a phenomenal choice because that double meaning is sharrrrrrp. This song is apparently about drugs but it sounds like it could apply to sex, too. Personally, I do think that these lyrics apply to the fact that they’re going upstairs to have sex - if you view this as a new step in their level of intimacy, then these lyrics apply to any potential nervousness. “You don’t know what’s in store/But you know what you’re here for” fit that scenario perfectly, particularly with Isak, and with Even telling him not to be scared, they’re in this together. BUT of course it hints at what will happen later in the evening, too - “You don’t know what’s in store” because Isak has no idea his night is going to end in disaster. The song itself has an unsettling feel, too, like it’s the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. 

I do want to talk about the sex scene here and overall how sex was portrayed in S3. Overall, Skam does right by Isak and Even in its depiction of the sexual side of their relationship. Canons often feature noticeable double standards in their portrayal of the gay couples compared to the het couples. And it’s not that a canon has to include sex scenes for anyone, including its canon gay pairings, but the thing is, there is a stigma specifically against gay sex, and a tendency to make it seem dirty or perverted, with no room for love or romance. Or the straight pairings will get explicit sex scenes, while the gay couple will get ones that are comparatively more chaste, if they even get sex scenes. Skam does a really good balancing act. Isak and Even have sex and it is not the focus of their relationship, but it’s not something that’s ignored, either. Not only that, they get sex scenes like Jonas/Eva and Noora/William did. The fact that they get sex scenes on par with the straight couples is important, because they’re not othered, they’re treated like the other romantic couples on the show.

Lmao, let’s just address it: I have heard many debates about who is topping and who is bottoming in this scene, using evidence like thigh placement etc. It’s not something I personally care about unless it’s relevant to characterization or story for whatever reason, but I don’t think people are bad for being curious or wanting to make sense of what they see on screen. Personally, I think Julie shot this scene precisely to sidestep the top/bottom discussion. This isn’t a linear sex scene, there are a bunch of edits and jumps, we only see them in closeups and not from wide shots across the room where there would be less debate over the specifics. So I can see your arguments but IDK, to me it’s a little like asking what’s in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. It’s whatever you want it to be. (If you want to laugh at me or roll your eyes because OBVIOUSLY X topped and Y bottomed, go ahead, lol.)

(Also they were in this suite for hours, guys. And they’re horny teenagers in love who have been together only a week, and Even was likely having an increased sex drive which is a common symptom of mania. They did it more than once. Both sides could be right!)

But on that note, I love that Julie shot it this way. She focuses on their faces and their expressions, rather than the gymnastics of their bodies. Not only does it feel very intimate and emotional compared to a lot of movie and TV sex scenes that are all about the mechanics of thrusting rather than feelings, but it’s a respectful way to film a sex scene with two young actors, including a 17-year-old, who have to act out this scene together in a room full of crew members, to later be viewed by like everyone in the country (and all over the world as it turns out). The idea gives me hives, personally. Or maybe it was NBD to the actors, who knows. Another day at work!

Even’s voiceover (“How many Isaks and Evens do you think are lying like this right now?”) starts while the sex is still happening. This is one of the only scenes in Skam that is non-linear to this degree, I think? Another one is Eva and Jonas’ breakup. 

Lmao, that look Isak gives as he watches Even eat his burger. That’s the look of a man who is having the time of his life.

Remember when Henrik posted about filming this scene as a farewell to 2016 and mentioned that the burgers were amazing? Quality content, bless that dude. (I’m kind of curious to know if those burgers were like, just high-quality standard burgers with the usual fixings, or if they were artisan burgers with unconventional toppings.) (I definitely did not just spend a few minutes checking out the Radisson Blu Plaza website to see if the room service menu was available online.)

This is the point where the cringe starts, and it becomes hard to watch. I feel terrible for both Isak and Even. Like I think people acknowledge how awful this was for Isak since we’re with him every step in his confusion and heartbreak, but I keep coming back to how Even is going to feel about this night once the high wears off. And that’ll happen as he’s crashing into a depressive episode, making it worse.

It’s also where the ambiguities of Even’s behavior start to lose their, well, ambiguity. Previously he acted in ways that were maybe odd but still cute or within the realm of normal behavior, such as the kitchen scene or the conversation with the receptionist, but here this conversation really isn’t something you can file away as normal. It doesn’t make sense. For instance, Even starts talking about their wedding, and I mean, I firmly support Evak becoming husbands in the future, but it’s a little forward to present that event as a certainty when the two of you are still in high school and have been together a week, no? 

Isak thinks so, too, but he’s not fully weirded out right away, not really. He goes along with the wedding talk at first, because hey, he’s with his boyfriend in a fancy hotel suite and they banged and now they’re eating burgers and life is good. Sure, let’s talk about our wedding. It’s just silly, idealistic chatter. Maybe it’s even fun, like Isak is too young to get married but it’s nice thinking that he could get married to a guy in the future, now that he’s out and more comfortable in his sexuality. But it’s not serious or anything.

Again, the acting from both of them is excellent. Henrik really got to me here when I was watching it without subtitles - he gets goofier and it just feels off. Not just that he’s messing around, but that he doesn’t know he’s messing around. And of course Tarjei’s reactions to him over the course of this conversation are amazing, we see him slide gradually into knowing something is wrong.

I want to perish when I see Isak and Even looking at each other on that bed. Even cannot stop touching Isak. The tracing of his eyebrow, over and over! It’s almost like he wants to make sure Isak is real, or to preserve the memory of Isak solidly in his mind, because who knows how long Even can have him?

We cut from this conversation on the floor with the burgers, to them in bed, and it’s like Isak is recalling this talk in bed later, like there was something strange about it to him that he can’t get it out of his mind. He might be having a good time with Even but there’s a puzzle he needs to solve. But the timeline really isn’t that certain - it adds to the instability of this scene. You could possibly read the entire hotel clip as a series of moments that Isak is running in his mind later, trying to make sense of everything. Most Skam scenes are so firmly planted in the “real-time” aspect that the idea is to feel that the clips were happening at the moment of their release, which was evident if you watched the season in real time. But this clip? The one that’s got a set time frame, one that’s significant enough to recognize in the yellow title cards and the name of the clip itself on the website? The one that jumps around over a period of many hours? When I was watching it live, I was just freaking out about what happened to think much about the timeline. Watching it now, I can totally see this clip as a collection of Isak’s memories, maybe after he got home later that night and he couldn’t sleep. All a blur of love and chaos.

Even some of the cuts on the floor feel disjointed, or they aren’t smooth. Like Even goes from talking about the wedding to suddenly having a champagne glass in his hand.

These sound effects also make things uneasy and unstable. Not in an over-the-top-way, but enough to make you aware of them and how they’re intruding on what could be a cute scene.

There was also supposed to be the scene of them in the shower mixed in here. Just imagine that gorgeous image of them under the water together! And then imagine it with the creepy music over it, or cutting to it like we do to Isak staring at Even in bed with fear in his eyes.

Even says that they’ll dress as God and Julius Caesar for their wedding, so they can get married in the clothes they were wearing when they first kissed. It’s pretty sappy! But kind of cute, right? Again, just silly conversation, fun to relive the memory of that night.

It’s when Even starts to talk about showing up naked that the joke starts to go too far, get too serious, too weird. Have you ever been messing around and laughing with friends and then someone takes a funny idea and keeps going further with it, until it’s a little too intense and you’re like, all right, it’s done, let’s leave it? That’s what this is. Especially because Even is really getting into this. Isak can be like “lol Even” at first when Even starts talking about going everywhere naked - because that’s still part of the joke, right? Except Even keeps going, recapping the ending of Pretty Woman. And Isak doesn’t know Pretty Woman, so this all seems baffling, but Even expects Isak to get it. Because Even knows Pretty Woman and therefore Isak should know Pretty Woman, obviously Isak will keep up with him.

When Even says “Princess Vivian!” it’s kind of cute, but in this context it’s like he doesn’t realize how he sounds to himself. It’s like when you remember something funny and start laughing out loud, and the people around you are confused as to what’s so funny. 

They cut to Isak in bed after “Princess Vivian!”, looking dramatically less happy, more concerned, because this is the point where Even really loses Isak and the dread starts to sink in. We notably don’t see Even’s face like we did in the previous jump, because Even has locked us out at this point. He’s lost us, too.

Speaking of Pretty Woman, as I mentioned earlier, Even most likely got the idea for the suite from Pretty Woman in the first place. If you’ve seen the movie, Richard Gere’s character is on a business trip, and he pays Julia Roberts’ character to stay with him while he’s there, and most of the movie they’re staying in this luxury penthouse suite. He’s been romancing Isak this week with cues from that movie - making everything for Isak for breakfast, renting a suite, detailing his proposal plan that’s straight out of the movie’s ending. He is literally trying to capture a movie romance with Isak.

“The whole joke is that you think it’s a Romeo and Juliet reference but you don’t get that until you enter the balcony.” Isn’t that what’s happening here? We were so sure this love story was Romeo and Juliet, but now Even’s all about Pretty Woman. Romeo + Juliet, a tragedy, perhaps represents more of his depressive tendencies while the references to Pretty Woman, a comedy, spring up while he is manic. 

But speaking of the connection drawn between the two and how they both feature famous balcony scenes, the fandom had so many theories about how Isak was going to reunite with Even on a balcony in the next episode, like maybe he would climb up the stairs to Even’s apartment. People also suggested the stairs on Even’s loft bed, like maybe Isak would climb them to see with Even while he was depressed and couldn’t get out of bed.

The “naked in a tie” thing is also from a scene in Pretty Woman, although it’s not the ending. Even’s kind of jumbling a lot of the film’s moments together, making it more confusing even if you have seen the movie.

Again, amazing acting! Henrik keeps selling it; Even isn’t a caricature, just a heightened version of himself, still Even and not an offensive depiction of a craaaAAAaazy person. He never feels like he’s overplaying, he’s just taking it far enough, in a way that feels natural.

Tarjei’s facial expressions are excellent as piece by piece he realizes that something is wrong. Even has already lost Isak with him rambling, Isak is hanging by his fingernails trying to keep up. Especially when Even wants Isak to complete the quote, and Isak is just totally lost, but he offers the smallest, weakest smile. And Even is impatient and wants Isak to keep up, he thinks this is something Isak should know.

“I’ll save you right back.” Cool, I’m flinging myself into the sun right now.

They did save each other! Even is the catalyst for Isak coming out and becoming an authentic version of himself - as he tells Eva later, even if it doesn’t work out with Even, he’s so happy he met him for this reason - and Isak is able to save Even before he hurts himself in O Helga Natt, as well as pulling him out of some of his worst ideas about himself - Isak can’t “save” Even from his depression but he’s able to get through to him with the “minutt by minutt” approach, and it’s because of Isak that Even can break out of a stagnant relationship where he doesn’t feel he can stand on his own.

I’m not sure Even literally wants Isak to rescue him from his mental illness, or something like that, but I think he wants to be accepted by him. The part where he’s like “It’s one of my dreams!” - Even is fantasizing about another epic movie ending, except interestingly, he’s changed his tune from thinking a romance needs to end in death for it to be epic. Here it’s like, with Isak, he can see the light. But there’s also something really vulnerable about it, how he longs for that type of love and acceptance.

The way the camera lingers on Isak’s face at the end, as it sinks in, then he looks back to Even, breaks my heart. He’s probably drawing a slight connection between Even and his mom. Now it seems like Isak’s mom has a different mental illness than Even, but it’s possible Isak recognizes similar behavior, such as expecting Isak to know something that isn’t grounded in reality and doesn’t make sense. In any case, he recognizes that this isn’t Even just being weird, or love-drunk, or whatever.

And it doesn’t help that the freaky tense music starts at the end, right before we cut back to Isak and Even lying in bed. We hear the question from Even again: “How many Isaks and Evens are lying in bed like this, right now?”

Actually, that really makes the burgers scene like a flashback, because it’s asked first at the end of the sex scene, and then again here, and it makes what happens in the middle (sitting on the floor eating burgers) seem like it happened earlier, and those shots of Even tracing Isak’s eyebrow in bed and such are when Isak reflects on this conversation. (To clarify: sex -> burgers -> lying in bed -> Even touching Isak and Isak looking at him with some concern thinking about how off the wedding talk was -> Even asks, “How many Isaks and Evens are lying in bed like this right now?”)

I don’t know if I over-explained that or if the whole scene is really obvious, lol. I think no matter what, this scene is edited in a way that is supposed to be a little hazy in order to add to the unease.

Heh, I do notice that Even’s hand placement doesn’t match up with the shots focused on him versus the shots focused on Isak.

Isak looks like he’s about to fall asleep in this scene. I wonder why? 🤔

Isak seems so pleased to answer the question, though. Even has really considered Isak’s worldview regarding parallel universes, hasn’t he? And what a gorgeous, heart-stopping thing to say, of course, that Isak and Even are together in infinite universes. This motif is one of my favorite parts of S3. It’s lovely and romantic but also vulnerable, and it doesn’t feel like some generic platitude? Like plenty of romances in media will have the characters make grand, sweeping statements, but many times they’re just the usual dialogue, empty words. When Isak and Even talk about parallel universes, it’s not just a cute idea - it is a concept that ends up profoundly affecting them, telling us about their personalities, becoming a lifeline when it seems they can’t be together in this universe, and turning into a core idea for their relationship. It’s incredibly specific and it adds texture to the entire narrative, not just a scene or two.

The way Even says “In infinite time?” with the utterly love-struck look on his face KILLS me. He loves this idea, because he’s a romantic soul, but he’s also looking for reassurance, because deep down he has doubts that it all will be OK.

The way Even’s face changes between the two shots freaks me out. First he’s glowing with happiness, his eyes full of love, and then he’s just … blank. Like Henrik was able to turn off the light. He looks dead inside. It’s alarming how fast Even switched moods, it really is. And we didn’t even see the transformation in action, since we cut to Isak’s face between shots. Imagine how it looked to Isak to see the happiness drain from Even.

And then Even comes out with just this deeply depressing comment. The only way to have something for infinity is by losing it. It sounds strange but there’s a certain logic to it. When you lose something, it remains that way in your memory. Imagine if Even loses Isak here. He will always have this moment, where they’re together and full of love and happy, where everything is basically perfect. But if Even holds on to Isak, he must know that the truth will come out, and everything will be tarnished. That’s how I interpret his remark, anyway.

In any case, Isak realizes how terrifying this comment is, how upsetting it is to have Even talk about losing something. He sounds very fatalistic. Like loss is inevitable. As someone who has dealt with depression, this part hit hard. I think everyone is capable of these pessimistic ideas at times, but for people with depression, these terrible, lonely ideas can be deeply embedded in your psyche, to the point where thinking of them feels as natural as breathing. They become part of your core as a person and it’s hard to overwrite them.

 Isak tells Even not to say stuff like that because Isak is genuinely scared, and a little bit of Even comes back to himself. Just a little, though, a tiny bit of warmth. He gives a small smile and tells Isak he’s just kidding. Obviously he is not kidding, but he doesn’t want Isak to worry. This little smile is for Isak’s benefit.

Isak really isn’t buying it, but he’s tired and so his eyes close. Even touches his mouth, end me with that intimacy, JFC.

ARRRRGH THAT FUCKING MUSIC

I was a wreck watching this scene for the first time. I remember that Rogue One was released not long after this episode and I walked out out of the theater like, “yeah, the third act of that movie was suspenseful and all, but it had nothing on that scene of a guy taking a shower in the background while his boyfriend sleeps.”

For some reason I thought Even might try to jump out of the window??? Even though many hotel rooms do not allow you to open the windows wide enough to fit through, for good reason. Or I thought Even was going to hurt himself in some way. Him walking out naked was almost tame to what I had feared, but then I was like, “Phew, he just walked out naked .... HOLY SHIT HE WALKED OUT NAKED.”

The editing here is clearly similar to Noora’s blackout in S2.8, another traumatic scene that had people freaking out over what happened. The fact that the screen is just black for several seconds, to the point you might wonder if the video has frozen, and then cuts to the activity in the room, makes it so fractured and confusing.

This actually simulates Isak’s grogginess, perhaps? The blackouts are him drifting in and out of consciousness. You know how when you’re mostly asleep but vaguely aware of stuff happening around you? Especially because Even’s out of focus, it’s like Even’s doing stuff but Isak is too sleepy to really take in what. The sound and the movement are enough to rouse him, but not make him entirely alert until it’s too late.. 

The blackouts also make the timeline very distorted. For instance, how long was it between Even lying down for a second and him running around the suite again? Did Isak fully go back to sleep? This whole thing must have seemed like a dream.

That Isak is sleeping peacefully in the foreground while Even is messing around in the background, out of focus … it’s just so eerie. Not getting a clear glimpse of him makes it worse because you’re not sure what’s going on. And the thing is, he’s just taking a shower, it seems? Nothing that weird in itself. Except that he’s doing this while Isak is asleep. And because it’s late. And because the show has built up the tension and planted all kinds of questions that haven’t been answered, and by now you have realized something is happening with Even, so even an innocuous act like this puts you on edge.

The sound editing is very good. Even’s clanging around is loud and sharp, it’s jarring. He’s just walking around making noise, like … what the hell is he doing?

Isak voices our concerns, asking Even if he ever sleeps, as it should be apparent to us by now that Even’s sleep schedule is out of whack. Even manages to temporarily keep Isak’s question at bay with a kiss on the cheek and a cute comment about Isak looking hot. Isak makes a sleepy, content sound, and Even touches his face again and lies beside him. But only for a moment. The fact that he lies there looking at him but gets up so quickly and decisively is unnerving. It’s like he can’t lie there, that even with Isak lying there looking like a snack, there’s too much rustling under Even’s skin and he can’t stay still.

Remember the baby/Evy debate? When this clip aired, apparently the official Norwegian captions had Isak referring to Even as “Evy” while other people heard “baby.” Julie Andem herself had to show a snippet of the script to prove it was “baby.”

But Isak calling a boy his “baby”? Character development! Interesting how he just breaks out the terms of endearment so quickly. He just wants Even to lie down with him in this comfortable big bed and enjoy this time together.

Isak finally wakes up more thoroughly when Even says he’ll get McDonald’s, because obviously it is pretty damn late to be getting burgers. I don’t know how late McD’s is open in Norway but uhhhh, not that typical to just leave your naked boyfriend and grab snacks this late, especially when you’ve been gorging on the superior room service burgers.

And you know, generally you have clothes on.

This part shocked me on first watch and I still have trouble watching it now. I can make it through the burger conversation without peeking through my eyes, but I have to look away when Even walks out naked. I just feel SO BAD for him. I feel completely terrible for Even throughout these final episodes. It’s a humiliating thing to do, to go out in public naked, even if you can laugh about it later. And he left Isak alone, confused and scared, and ended up getting picked up by the cops. Of all the ways that Isak could have learned that Even was bipolar, there’s not much that could have been worse.

Plus it’s cold enough that they’re wearing scarves and coats. I mean, this did air in early December in Norway. And Even’s also potentially got wet hair from the shower. Very much not optimal conditions for nudity.

This is also apparently not a great part of Oslo? Or it’s an area that makes Isak concerned for Even in itself, he’s concerned that Even will get beat up in this part of town. 

Kudos to Henrik for doing this scene, though, because it’s about the most un-sexy nude scene you could do. Also props to Julie for keeping the moment short rather than making it exploitative, like we’re not here to gawk at the mentally ill person’s nude antics. We’re concerned that Even is in trouble. (I remember after this scene, the fandom’s reaction to the sex or Even’s bare ass was tiny compared to everyone having a collective meltdown over Isak and Even’s well-being.)

I think the fact that the glimpse of him walking out is so short adds to the effect, too. Did we just see what we thought we saw? Did Isak see what he thinks he did? Like you just see him lift his head and stare at the empty doorway in confusion. I’ve seen YouTube reactions to this part where the reactor is clearly like, “Wait, what??”

This scene is brilliant in putting you in Isak’s shoes. The fact that we don’t see Even actually leave the room naked, that there’s a pause as we wait for the slam of the door and then we realize exactly what happened, that this is really happening … that’s what it’s like for Isak. And the way Isak runs to the door, wrapped in the covers, looking out after Even and then taking a moment to process it all. Isak doesn’t know why Even just did that, he just know that everything has flipped upside down with the slam of a door.

Let’s appreciate that in all his confusion, though, that Isak has the foresight to grab Even’s clothes before he runs out looking for him.

Tarjei’s so good in this scene. Isak presses both buttons for the elevator and then again when they don’t come fast enough, because he’s panicking and every second that goes by means Even gets farther away. When the elevator is arriving, he gets RIGHT up to the door and stands there and waits for it, like the extra second he would have wasted standing farther back is too precious to lose.

One of the moments that makes my stomach churn is when Isak gets out in the lobby and he asks the receptionist where he (Even) went. There’s no need for Isak to explain what’s happening. No need to describe who he’s looking for. They know exactly who he means, meaning that yeah, this situation is real and it is bad. The hotel staff are gathered around, worried. They’re probably in shock. IDK, I imagine you see a lot of shit go down when you work in a hotel, but guests going naked through the lobby out into the cold is probably rare enough that it gets your attention. Who knows exactly what Even said or did when he was leaving, too?

But Isak just runs out, not wasting any time. You do have to hand it to this kid for handling this crisis in the moment probably as best as he could. He has one objective and that’s to find Even and keep him safe. 

I’ve often thought, from an AU perspective, what would have happened if Isak caught up to Even on the street or found him on his own. I think it might have been better for both of them even if the police arrived, since Isak would at least get to see Even again, and maybe not hear what Sonja says later. But maybe not? Maybe the situation would have been too much for Isak to handle and things would have been ever worse. It’s an interesting what-if scenario.

Isak knows it’s time to call Sonja. From Sonja’s perspective, she’s probably thinking that of course this is what happens when she’s not there to take control. That Isak is in way over his head and not equipped to deal with this. Even though she and Even are broken up, this has to be one of her worst fears, Even in danger. And that’s part of why it’s so easy to take out her feelings on Isak.

The fact that the streets are so empty as we follow Isak on his futile search makes it even bleaker. Especially that final image of Isak at a distance, small, looking around. The people passing by looking at him, noticing this kid carrying a bundle and looking distressed. If the streets are so empty, it should be easier to find Even since he’ll stand out, and be safe from any crowds, but that Even isn’t there makes you wonder where the hell he could be.

Poor Isak. Look at his huge sigh of relief when Sonja tells him that the police have Even so he’s safe. That was his only concern, making sure Even was okay. Questions can come afterwards.

Sonja, however, looks pissed, like she’s sizing up Isak and wondering how he can let this happen.

Confession: now I have to say, this scene with Sonja really surprised me the first time I saw it. Because I know there were a lot of people hating on her beforehand and suspecting the worst - she’s abusing Even, she’s stealing his medication, she’s a witch - but I figured she was probably just worried about him and trying her best. I thought she had good intentions, and that some of Even’s complaints about her were exaggerated, because from his perspective, she was the enemy. He was biased. And Sonja does have good intentions. But from this scene, it is clear that her POV of Even’s mental illness is very flawed, and that he is not wrong about her. 

I say this as a mentally ill person myself - I realized I had given too much credit to Sonja’s POV and not enough to Even’s. I had somewhat downplayed his complaints against her in my mind, because she had “good intentions.” Frankly, it was ableist of me, and as someone who’s gone through mental health issues, it was sobering. Especially because I loved Even’s character from the start and guessed that he was mentally ill early on - I felt like I should have known better, if that makes sense? Not downplayed his perspective. And I felt ashamed because I would hate for people to apply that perspective to me, were someone minimizing my complaints about a person because of my mental illness. It’s a lesson I’m glad I learned.

When Isak asks what happened, it’s like Sonja lets out all her anger. Theresa shows that moment really well. For this kid not know what the hell he’s doing, so Even got into trouble. For Isak ignoring her messages until it was too late, when she probably would have explained her perspective in a more measured way. For having to clean up this mess. For being cheated on and having her four-year relationship end because of this boy. 

I can sing Tarjei’s praises endlessly. When Sonja is tearing into Isak, he’s just stunned, he’s even nodding a little as if of course what she’s saying must be true.

This part where she says Even is not in love with Isak, it’s just a sick idea in his head, though? That’s fucked up and it’s hard to justify it as just anger. Because on some level, Sonja actually believes in this, that Even’s feelings are not real. And like, I can understand why she would think this more in light of S4, when we learn about the Mikael situation, and it’s possible to see why she assumes this is another repeat of that - that Even is manic and deciding he has feelings for a boy again. With Mikael he obviously made a move on him, but was rebuffed and got back with Sonja, so why can’t it be the same this time? Sure, she might be mostly in denial over their relationship ending, and this is a grasp to rationalize things will be okay in the end, but even if that’s the case ... she still said this. The idea went through her mind.

Also, I don’t want to demonize Sonja, but I do wonder if she would have reacted this way if Even had left her for another woman. I think she would have been angry, of course, and justifiably upset, but would she have called it a “sick idea in his head”? Would she have been so quick to assume he was manic and his feelings weren’t real if Isak were a girl, or did him being a boy make it more likely for her to think that - because of the similarities to the Mikael incident, or because she wasn’t sure Even wasn’t straight, or what? To be clear, I’m not saying Sonja is a raging homophobe who thinks men being together is gross. I mean, I like the idea of her knowing Even was pansexual and being supportive, and maybe she was! But it’s also possible she lumped Even’s attraction to men in with “manic things” rather than Even just not being straight. 

The flip side of that is that Even’s suicide attempt was connected to his feelings toward liking guys, and I would hope she would take that seriously. (This is why I want to know so much more about the Even/Sonja relationship, it’s incredibly interesting to me.) Whatever the case, Sonja definitely accepts Even’s feelings for Isak were real not long after this, so she reconsidered her opinion. 

The fact that she lumps in Even’s feelings for Isak with him memorizing the Quran in Arabic because at the time he thought that was a good idea … yikes. That’s really dismissive. And not a great glimpse into how she views Even as a person. (Although we now know that Even was memorizing the Quran because he felt shame over the Mikael incident, so double yikes. It feels low to bring in Even’s romantic relationship with a boy and compare it to an incident where he tried to cure himself of liking boys, as if they’re equally ludicrous.)

She’s also implying that Isak is making Even’s condition worse because they’ve been smoking, which is not fair. That’s Even’s fault if he’s smoking, it’s not Isak’s responsibility to keep him from doing so (especially when he doesn’t even know Even isn’t supposed to smoke).

Sonja asks him to stay away. I think that, despite Even’s warnings about Sonja’s POV, Isak takes her very seriously. After all, she’s the one who showed up and handled this awful situation. She’s the one who had the answers. She’s the one who has known Even for much longer than Isak has - she has a whole history with Even that Isak doesn’t know. So yeah, as Magnus points out, it is silly to listen to your boyfriend’s ex, but I completely get why Isak does.

The sirens in the background may or may not have to do with the police picking up Even, but they sure do contribute to the stress of the scene and represent Isak’s state of distress.

I wondered for a while why Sonja appears to knock into Isak, because even if she’s angry that seems a little harsh, lmao, but I realized that she’s probably grabbing Even’s clothes out of his arms.

After she leaves, Isak looks like he’s shedding a single tear but Tarjei is managing more than one, his face is just in shadow. Goddamn. I feel so bad for Isak. This amazing night ended in disaster, he’s been told that his wonderful new relationship that makes him happy and free is all fake.

I have so many questions about what happened after this from Even’s POV. Did his parents come and get him? How did he interact with Sonja?

Also, I’ve wondered what happened with the hotel, like Isak had to go back and get his things since he had his backpack there … and Sonja or someone must have gone to pick up Even’s things. (Imagine how awkward it would be to walk into the suite where your boyfriend was just sleeping with the guy he dumped you for. Though I guess she had more urgent things to worry about.)

I forgot exactly what happened but lmao other members of the production team getting angry at Julie for this scene. The fandom was distraught, I enjoy knowing that even the people making the damn show were upset.

WHO WANTS THAT PERFECT LOVE STORY ANYWAY, CLICHE, CLICHE, CLICHE

May I just say that this is the perfect song for the closing credits to just like, really twist the knife in your gut? I was already traumatized watching the clip; watching the full episode with the credits and THIS DAMN SONG OVER THEM broke me. NOT A FUCKING EXAGGERATION. Julie is a monster for using Beyoncé for evil like that. 

For real, just murdering us because we were head over heels for this “perfect love story” but of fucking course something had to come and take it away! Fuck off!!!!

Isak thought he was in a perfect love story and then lost it and was told it was never real! I mean, that’s fine! Who wants that!

who wants that hero love that saves the day ... anyway ... anyway

sob

Social Media and General Comments:

This episode is the game-changer for this season, the one where we finally get answers to all those offhand comments or moments, and where certain events finally make sense. It’s a roller coaster, with the euphoria, the anticipation, the swoop in your stomach as you drop. I love it.

And this was one of the BEST weeks for social media in Skam, that I experienced, anyway. It was an example of how this format can contribute so much to the storyline and string along audience emotions.

Eskild sent some texts to Isak after the end of episode 7, noting that Even’s shoes were in the flat. Isak must have been awake since Eskild notes that he leaves him on read, but understandably does not reply.

There was a gap from the kitchen scene to the next update, which was an IG pic of Even playing FIFA in Isak’s room around 9 Friday night. I remember everyone was freaking out Saturday and Sunday waiting for the next update - did Even spend the weekend with Isak? What happened next???? And well, it was smart to keep us hanging. I mean Isak and Even were clearly busy and it was like they had their own private weekend away from us nosy fans. Julie and Mari must have been laughing at our thirst for more details.

Also Even is wearing Isak’s shirt in the pic. That’s not quite a coming out statement, unless you’re overly acquainted with Isak’s wardrobe, but it’s a sign of Isak being ever slightly more comfortable with people thinking he’s dating a guy. He’s not hiding Even. In fact, if you take into account all the rumors flying at Nissen about him and Even, Isak’s really not a giving a fuck about them anymore. Anyone can see he associates with Even by looking at his Instagram. (He’s banging Even. Who gives a shit about anything else?)

The famous shower text was this week on Monday, in which Even says he can’t concentrate in class because he’s thinking about what Isak did in the shower that morning and he has a boner. And Isak says he’ll do that shower thing again after school. They arrange to meet at KB after classes end at 15:35 and if you were in the fandom, you know all our asses were on the Skam website hitting refresh at 15:35. Alas, no clip. Mari was fucking with us. But honestly, it’s the kind of gentle trolling I can appreciate.

This shower text is likely making up for the fact that we did not get the actual shower scene between Isak and Even that was written in the script. 

Kevin McHale, who played Artie on Glee, is a big Skam fan and giant Evak shipper, was once asked what he thought Isak did in the shower, only to reply with a series of salad emojis. I just think people should be aware of this. 🥗🥗🥗

Also, Isak uses a red heart emoji in this text? What a sap. And he’s so flirty and confident about his sexuality! He’s probably thrilled and happy to make plans to continue shower activities! 

Eskild snapped a pic of Isak and Even looking cute and sends it to the Kollektivet group chat. Linn seems oblivious and asks if Isak is gay now. I like to imagine that Isak and Even have been making out on every surface the last few days, well within her view, and she just hasn’t been paying attention. However, she and Noora agree that the boys look good.

Isak has a line here asking Eskild not to post it anywhere, because they’re not official or anything. Makes you think how damn great it would have been for him to hear Even introduce him as his boyfriend to the hotel receptionist. But also, lmao, Isak, you know Even is like 10 minutes away from putting a ring on it, right? Not official my ass.

It’s completely understandable that he doesn’t want it posted publicly, that is a pretty big step and we know he’s not comfortable with PDA. A pic of Even playing FIFA is one thing, a cuddle pic? Very big move. (But also, makes you wonder if Isak can’t help but be a little insecure and wonder if Even is going to bail on him again. I hope not! They seem very settled throughout this week. They can even joke about breaking up over Even’s musical taste and not have it be weird.)

The picture Eskild shares is from that string of cuddle pics that Mari gave up and posted during the last episode, so Eskild was like, having a whole-ass photo shoot.

On Wednesday, Even says he doesn’t like his own bed because he’s used to Isak’s, so he’s probably been sleeping at Isak’s since Friday night.

Isak is behind on studying, HMMM I WONDER WHY

Isak is confident enough to drop a link to the Mikael video, but also insecure enough to do it? Like there’s definitely an inquiry there in “Who is Mikael” that’s not casual, you know Isak wants to know if Mikael was Even’s ex or something. And Mikael is also no longer in the picture, even as a friend, so Isak has nothing to go on. Even kinda dodges the question by making a joke about how he’s the previous man of his life, then saying Isak is the only one. Swoooooon. Even, you charming fucker.

Except after S4, this seems way more like a dodge and Even’s occasional tendency to skirt hard questions with jokes or answers that aren’t really answers. But yeah, Mikael was not someone who wanted Even back. Isak is the only one, and the person who makes Even feel something he’s never felt before.

Even “casually” exits this potentially difficult conversation by saying he’s going to shower, and those are the magic words, these kids sure love getting clean! Isak doesn’t need anything else to tell Even to come back to him. SWOOOON. That Isak just gives up and tells Even he wants him? Goddamn.

The texts from Thursday are EXCELLENT in establishing tension. Especially because “This is Even” dropped first, and we were already on edge from his weird comments in that clip about Sonja and whatever was happening there with his odd reactions.

Even suddenly decides, after yesterday’s complaints that he no longer likes his own bed, that he will sleep in his own bed tonight. Why? He says it’s so Isak can study, but does it have to do with what happened earlier with Sonja and wanting to avoid the topic? Or does it has to do with his increasing mania and lack of need for sleep? Because when he says “sleep in his own bed” we know that little sleep will be happening.

He’s also saying that Isak should get a surprise if he does well on his test, so he was also planning to book the suite that night. He sends Isak lyrics from “Bliss” by John Legend ft. Teyana Taylor, which are about jet-setting away and being surprised with luxurious gifts, so a big hint about what he has in mind for Isak’s surprise.

I recommend listening to “Bliss,” by the way, it’ll give you Evak feels. 

Pure bliss Like you've got the key to my heart Simple as a touch and a kiss Never knew a feeling like this Pure bliss, pure bliss Nobody can tear us apart Baby it's as good as it gets (Kiss kiss kiss kiss) Loving you will never be hard This is pure bliss

This is how Even feels about Isak! He’s never felt this way before!

Let's run away Let's run away Our friends, say we're crazy But we can't listen baby They've never had it like this They don't know what it is

And it’s all about getting away! Even’s surprise for Isak is specifically so they can get away from everyone else, say, meddling ex-girlfriends who might want to share some sensitive information. Like does Even want to just get away from it all, or is there a part of him that thinks it’s coming to an end, and he wants to make their time together as memorable as possible?

I also think he’s trying to prove his love to Isak, trying to overcompensate, so if Sonja says something like Even’s feelings aren’t real, he can convince him otherwise. The lyrics say that Isak shouldn’t listen to Sonja, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

But Even’s mind is already racing. He texts Isak a little while later, asking if Isak liked the song, and when Isak is confused, he says that Isak’s not following. It’s as if in his mind Isak was definitely going to register his comment about jet-setting away and gifts from Tiffany as song lyrics and go look it up, or recognize them immediately. It’s not a totally absurd expectation, but it is like he’s already beginning to leave Isak behind, just like in the suite when Isak doesn’t know the Pretty Woman reference and Even expects him to know it.

Still! Isak “breaks up” with Even for joking that he doesn’t like hip-hop. THIS IS SO CUTE. IT ENDS WITH MUTUAL HEART EMOJIS. I can’t help but imagine Isak seeing that red heart and clutching his phone to his chest like in episode 5, unable to stop grinning.

Even sends yet another text at 1 am, with a Seinfeld meme. It’s surprisingly unsettling - it’s late at night, it’s very random, Even initially means to send something else but clicks it away which to me means that he’s distracted, there’s another heart emoji … if you suspect Even is manic by this point, this is a big sign. This is what I mean by using social media effectively in this episode. Like this should be a weird but innocuous text and instead it made people uneasy, because of the timing and the random content.

Let’s appreciate Even’s use of emojis when he’s meeting Isak at KB. An eggplant is pretty clear, but what does a dolphin mean? I guess I’m not emoji-savvy enough to understand?

With the hotel scene, Isak had some IG stories before the clip appeared, including a view from the suite window and a selfie of him and Even. If you were in the fandom then, you might remember that the fans managed to figure out they were going to a hotel (and which hotel) before the clip even dropped. (Also, Isak and Even are bundled up in their coats and hats and everything in the selfie, so they did not just immediately tear off their clothes when they entered the suite, lol.) This was one of the coolest things about watching in real time, the fandom’s detective prowess.

Isak’s text to Eskild after the hotel scene is one of my FAVORITE texts on the show. I would include it in my favorite moments of Skam, period.  Isak reaches out to Eskild, wanting to know if he’s home, and he doesn’t say in detail what happened, just that everything has gone to hell. And Eskild IMMEDIATELY drops what he’s doing to come home for Isak. This is so touching and beautiful, it’s the heart of Isak and Eskild’s relationship right there. There are no questions from Eskild about what happened, all Isak has to say is that something went wrong and Eskild just goes to him. And Isak reached out to Eskild - I mean, I guess he could be asking “Are you home?” because he wanted to know if Eskild had a guy over or something, but I think he just needed someone at that moment. Isak has been increasingly asking Eskild for his advice, he values Eskild’s input and presence.

And it’s telling that he thought of Eskild, like, Eskild is really family to him. I mean, Isak could have written to Joans, and I’m sure Jonas would have been amazing, but I think Isak needed kind of like .... more of an adult’s help, if you get me? You know how sometimes when something goes wrong, you want a hug from a parent, specifically? I think Isak needed that kind of reassurance. I don’t know exactly what happened between them prior to the opening scene in episode 9, but this act alone says it all about the closeness of that relationship. It is one of my favorite relationships in all of Skam. (Really, Isak has so many incredible relationships in this season, doesn’t he? Even, Eskild, Jonas and the boy squad, Sana...)

Thank you all for reading my rambles on Skam! I love hearing from you all, and I so appreciate the kind comments I’ve gotten. You guys are so sweet ❤️❤️❤️

[kaypeace21]

The Duffers use of music proves byler is endgame (music-analysis)

The Duffers in an interview said that they choose songs for the show very deliberately -sometimes spending weeks on Spotify to find just the right song to convey an emotion/context of a scene. Songs in all seasons (but especially in s3) were used to show how characters are feeling- or just an action they’re about to commit.

For instance, Karen when she’s about to meet Billy at the motel-  feels apprehensive and wants to get out of it (since it would hurt her family) and she was just flirting with Billy as a way to escape her own issues, about her life. She never flirted with Billy for the end-goal of “getting him.”

They even use “cat’s in the cradle’ which could be shown as a way to illustrate the inappropriate age disparity between Billy/Karen.

Other examples-

Right before the boys run away from the lingerie store- the lyrics are literally “I just walk away” XD

Jim when he looks at Joyce- the lyrics are “she’s got you.” ( cause he’s in love with her).

-And Jim after getting Mike to not come over to see El, (by yelling at him) sings…

Joyce after she sees Bob’s drawing fall to the ground and then crouches to pick it up.

And songs also illustrates how Nancy feels about her job (with her sexist co-workers). As the morose lyrics of “I’ll be working here forever” play as it zooms in on Hawkins post -as Nancy rushes inside.

As well as  her excitement -about investigating a new case. As Jancy leaves and the very on the nose song  of “get up and go” begins -as they get into the car.

Billy when he pulls out chloroform (from a perfume bottle).

El after dumping Mike (and smiling about it) XD

So all the byler stuff I’m about to mention proves byler is endgame.

So yes, the fact that the very first lyrics that play when we see mileven kiss for the first time  is “Just a little uncertainty can bring you down”- reflects that (just like the others, the song reflects Mike’s true feelings). The song is from the album “boy in the box (cough closet)”.

And we know this is how Mike (not El) feels about their relationship because he begins to sing the song right after this lyric. It mirrors how when Will danced with a girl (who owned a rainbow hair clip) the lyrics were “every smile you fake.”

Mike continues “And nobody wants to know you now. And nobody wants to show you how.So if you’re lost and on your own. You can never surrender.” He fears that if he isn’t straight everyone he cares about will abandon him, and that he’d be lost and the only one ‘like this’ -all alone.But he can’t ‘surrender’ the false-idea of being in love with El (out of fear).  El even says to “stop” and tries to cover his mouth to prevent him from singing and Mike asks “What you don’t like it?” and El just says “No!”.

Which may be a purposeful juxtaposition to how Robin came out- and instead both Robin and Steve sang off-tune happily together- while El covers Mike’s mouth and tells him to stop singing. When Mileven kiss at the end of the season the song ‘the first i love you’ plays. The same song that plays when Robin comes out to steve (to illustrate the juxtaposition).

What’s interesting is ( right before the mileven kiss) we see a zoom in shot of a picture of Will and a rainbow . Like that’s Will! He has light brown hair (not black) and Will is the only one associated with fire and has drawn himself with fire in the past.

And since El has Mike related-stuff all over her room, and barely knows Will. Mike probably lied saying it was supposed to be him- which is why it’s above her bed.And we also see that based on it’s placement Mike is facing the Will drawing so he can see it  (cause we see El in front of the poster and Mike sitting opposite of her during the 1st kiss) . 

And during this transition the lyrics read “cause just a little more time could open closing doors” Which could be hinting at byler becoming a thing later - when (after some ‘time’) they both become ready to actually admit their feelings/sexuality - despite the other probably doubting the other has feelings for them.

I mean we even see an illustration of Will & the text of the name ‘Mike’ written out next to a rainbow-heart. And 2 other drawings next to the rainbow heart drawing (that are covered in red hearts). XD

(*for those who can’t see Mike written out in the transitioned will/mike pic)

However, what’s interesting though is the one other things he took down from his wall. In S1 Mike (before he even met El)  has a heart sign, with a red heart being propelled by a rainbow. Then in s3 it's gone from his wall when he dates El (cause he's trying to repress the fact he's gay). Why El has a drawing that says Mike (with a heart also propelled by a rainbow.) He can't use El to escape the truth. His rainbow follows him everywhere even when he tries to hide it (from his basement wall and himself) -  and when kissing El!Aka he tries to take it down (like he pretends to be straight). However, in the first ep of s3 when Mike is making-out with El (trying to project his feelings for Will on to her by looking at the Will drawing while kissing) we see a emergence of the heart being propelled by a rainbow (in El’s room) as a drawing.  signifying Mike participating in compulsory-heterosexuality,  and the fact no matter how hard he tries- he’s not straight!

Also El’s reaction to the song - hints that this isn’t actually her mixtape. But one that Mike made for her. or Will made for Mike (since jon makes mixtapes and prob taught him how- Will in s3 gave a mixtape to Dustin so it would not surprise me if he gave one to Mike).

So similar to the drawing, the mixtape hints at byler’s feelings

  ‘I can’t fight this feeling’ (which mileven makes out to later). Actually indicates Mike fighting his feelings for Will. And how he’s been trying to fight his feelings for Will, all season.

Besides the lyrics themselves- the singer literally went on record about the song’s meaning . Which is about a boy being in love/pinning over his friend of many years and never thinking he had a chance at being with them (and being afraid he’d ruin the relationship if he confessed)- but slowly thinking he could  be with them (and that they might feel the same way about him) . And in the song the 2 people AREN’T even together yet!

“Oh, I can’t fight this feeling any longer. And yet I’m still afraid to let it flow. What started out this friendship has grown stronger, I only wish I had the strength to let it show. I tell myself that I can’t hold out forever .I said there is no reason for my fear ‘Cause I feel so secure when we’re together ‘.You give my life direction. You make everything so clear. And even as I wander I’m keeping you in sight. You’re a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter’s night. And I’m getting closer than I ever thought I might”

This makes no sense for mileven who kissed after knowing each other for a week and who didn’t have a long established friendship, beforehand. And who also are already together (and not afraid to express their ‘romantic feelings’ for each other).

Then in s2, mileven dance to ‘every breath you take’ a break up song about a stalker ex. The writer of the song also has said many times “it’s NOT a love song.” The duffers obviously knew that. Lumax also danced to it and Lucas was called a ‘stalker’. El also stalked Mike in s2 (all that stuff milevens found romantic- El watching him without him knowing. Mike says he was not ok with it in s3). And in s3 he said not to do that and she just says ‘i make my own rules’. Not to mention Nancy teaching Dustin how to dance is a direct parallel to Mike teaching El. 

Mike also tries to act like Dustin, and  forces Will to dance with a girl (who’s wearing a rainbow hair clip). Trying to be a good sport like Dustin is about lumax. And right after this we see Dustin look sad about Max/Lucas dancing and Mike (next to Dustin) look sadly at Will/girl dancing in the same exact frame as Max/Lucas. As they switch between these 2 shots to emphasize their sadness/jealousy.Then they both sit down (mirroring each other) on the verge of tears before Nancy and El show up to comfort them and distract them.  As El once again (presumably) wears Nancy dress. Mike “you cant go with your sister… i mean you can but it’d be really weird.”

Also in regards to Will- when I heard they were going to have the song ‘Never ending story’ I wondered if they were going to re-contextualize one line in particular to be a hint at Will’s queerness. And shock- they did it! XD

The lyric is “ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon a rainbow Is the answer to a never ending story. ”

And of course Will is the one with a secret- that is ‘rainbow’ related. And they pan to him during the “secrets” line. I think Will is less in the denial phase than Mike is and already knows he’s gay and in love with him.

And this wasn’t a coincidence because when Lumax makes fun of Dustin they sing the lyrics incorrectly as  “The mirror of your dreams. Rhymes that keep their secrets…” And it pans to Will AGAIN!

We see Will obscured in shadows to represent he’s “hiding”.

And then he appears in the light, looking sadly at D&D as the lyrics , “rhymes that keep their secrets” is sang (again).

And we see he’s specifically looking at the d&d game sadly and about to give it away- since they zoom in on the game title (before he places it in the “donation” box). 

Because the d&d game is used to reflect his desires (like a “mirror”) . It’s the ‘mirror of his dreams’- to be with Mike. Cue Mike saying “ what did you think,really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?” And poor Will  just responding with “Yeah, I guess I did. I really did.”

This lyric about the mirror is NOT in the original song. It was used once again to establish D&D as a romantic symbol for byler. Just like how they zoomed in on d&d right before the romantic “crazy together” speech.

Mike in s3 says “Blank makes you crazy… y’know like the word (love).” Flo in s1 says “ Only love makes you that crazy and that stupid.” Cue Will calling himself “stupid” 4 times (after Mike says they won’t be together playing games for the rest of their lives-and ripping up the Halloween pic , out of heart-break).

(x)

So again right after we see the zoom-in of the game (another romantically coded scene happens after). Will puts the game in the ‘donation’ pile - and Mike isn’t happy about it.

Mike: “WHOA, dude, that’s the donation box.”

Will: “ I know, I’ll just use yours,  when I come back. (pause) if WE still want to play?”

( translation: “I love and want to be with you but I’m not going to pursue you and get my heart broken again. Because even if I feel like you love me… I can’t trust my own instincts about how you truly feel anymore. If you want to play this ‘game of love’  with me you have to initiate/participate in the game properly.” Mike when fixated on El even says it was a cool campaign but  “we just weren’t in the mood right now.” and  also says to Will “c’mon, let’s play for real”  but Will storms off (not thinking that what Mike said was genuine).  

Mike : “Yeah, but what if you want to join another party?”

(*cough, the other ‘species’/girls, or just someone else: girl, guy or otherwise)

Will: “Not possible.”

(Will will always love Mike, and  admits he wants to be with him for the rest of his life).

(x)

And we actually see the Hopper’s Monologue (where Mike is shown)- reflects what Mike said to Will earlier. Mike does want to love Will but he’s just scared of changing their relationship into something romantic- and even though a part of him doesn’t want things to change, he’s still afraid that Will will move on from him as they both get older. “I’ve been feeling distant from you. Like you’re pulling away from me or something” (Will does this both figuratively/literally). I miss playing board games every night (d &d)”. “But I know you’re getting older, growing, changing. And I guess, if I’m being really honest, that’s what scares me. I don’t want things to change.”

Also the lyric “ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds and there upon a rainbow- is the answer to a never ending story. ”

One way or another Will’s secret (of being queer and/or being in love with Mike) will eventually come out. And that’s the answer to this “never ending story” between Will & Mike. Their love story. I mean who else is associated with Will’s story and has loads of rainbow symbolism - and has rainbow symbolism that  specifically connects them to Will?

*Lol don’t even get me started  on analyzing how in s1 when Mike thinks Will is dead- Mike hugs his mom and the lyrics are “and we kiss as though nothing could fall. And the shame.” Which is queer coded and written by David Bowie- and during the s2 “freak” speech- Will even says he’d rather be friends with Bowie than Kenny Roggers.

People need to realize no one is a bigger shipper of byler- than the Duffer brothers themselves! XD

[kaypeace21]

Byler hints in the background of s1-3

Honestly, this should just be called- ‘my autistic brain casually (and without even trying) notices shit in the background, but never mentioned it- because I thought it sounded too crazy to talk about’ XD. But the symbolism and Easter eggs give my byler-shipping heart so much life. So I thought, since you guys prob. didn’t notice it- I’ll mention it anyways.  So here goes.

Drawings/rainbows

There has been a theme in s3 about how Mike equates ‘falling for girls’ as a part of growing up, and his feelings for Will as something childish that he has to has to grow out of. 

- confessing to El : “A feeling … yeah, like, something… like OLD PEOPLE say it sometimes”.

- “And Will too. I was thinking we could all have new presents to play with and *scoffs* Sorry, that made me sound like a 7 year old... (apologizing to El)

- Mike getting in a fight with Will (after d&d), and saying they can’t be close anymore: 

Mike says, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”, and then he tries to ½ apologize only to say, “I’m not trying to be a jerk. Ok? But We’re not kids anymore.” Explaining, this is just the way things are-boys fall in love with girls, get girlfriends, and this is just a part of growing up (heteronormativity).  He tells Will “I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?” And poor Will who is probably more aware of his feelings just responds. “Yeah, I guess I did. I really did.” And of course Mike immediately apologizes for being an “ asshole”, after this.

But here’s the thing! Mike actually does wish he didn’t have to grow up and that he could play games with Will (without girlfriends) for the rest of their lives. His room, in s3, SCREAMS that he’s trying to grow up/act straight... but he can’t let go of his feelings for Will. 

He literally takes down his old childhood poster from s1-2 for a more mature/adult poster. But on the same wall (where the old poster used to be) he hasn’t removed a single d&d drawing Will has given him. He’s pretending that he’s grown out of d&d when Lucas is around- because he’s emulating how (the straight) Lucas acted, all season. But Mike has it BAD (and is seriously pinning) for Will! Like, I love Will but his art at 11 years old isn’t so great to justify it still be on Mike’s wall at age 14.  He’s just that whipped (and literally can’t part with a single drawing Will has ever given him) XD

Like... it’s cannon that Mike caresses Will’s drawings 

He’s that ‘ dumbass blinded by love’ who thinks anything Will’s draws is a perfect- masterpiece. Mike could literally see Will draw scribbles and think it’s amazing! Like in s2 he just guides his hands through the scribbles he drew on the wall- no joke! XD

However, what’s interesting though is the one other things he took down from his wall. In S1 Mike (before he even met El)  has a heart sign, with a red heart being propelled by a rainbow. Yet in s3 , the season where he’s ‘obsessing’ about El- it mysteriously disappears. However, in the first ep of s3 when Mike is making-out with El we see a emergence of the heart being propelled by a rainbow (in El’s room) as a drawing. Probably signifying Mike participating in compulsory-heterosexuality and that no matter how hard he tries- he’s not straight!

So given the fact he can’t part with any of the pictures on the wall...you better believe Mike still has that giant binder filled with every drawing Will has given him . And he’s probably hidden it away , with the rainbow heart sign (because he knows it would look suspicious to have laying around). 

-Also, Mike literally has more rainbow symbolism than Will (and has had it through every season) XD

-the s2 ref being the most on the nose) Forbidden fruit + rainbow = queer forbidden romance. And during the 80s, that rainbow-apple poster in the AV Club was suspected to be in reference to Alan Turning (the gay ‘father of computers’).

Animal easter eggs that relate to byler and the upside down/supernatural-plot .

tigers- Mike keeps a tiger poster (which was right next to that rainbow-heart sign) in his basement through s1-3. In s1 we see Will also has a tiger drawing, which is later put on the wall (like a poster) in s2.  Sara Hopper (like Will ) had her death faked by the government (and had a tiger plushie in s1)- and Kali probably had something to do with it since in the prequel novel ‘suspicious minds’ had Kali talk non stop about her fav animal , tigers.  Theory  here. But again, Jancy is also connected to tigers as a romantic symbol (just like byler).

sharks- The Duffer brothers themselves said they based the s1 demorgorgan off of sharks, which Nancy even references in s1. Mike and Will have shark iconography in their room/basement. Will has a jaws poster shown in s1-2, and Mike has shark toys visible in s2. The shark (and bear) symbolism hint at the fact that Will created the upside down/demorgorgans/mind-flayer using his powers- theory here.

bears- Will since s1 has had bear symbolism around him. Bears symbolically represent  “wisdom” like ‘Will the wise’ and were associated with the demorgorgan/upside down in s1 and 2 as well . Max and Nancy compared demogorgans to bears- and Nancy and Jonathan used a bear-trap to capture a demorgorgan in s1 . 

But s3 made bears a romantic symbol- Mike was going to buy a golden teddy bear for El as a romantic gesture. The golden bear had a bowtie (it’s male). And the gray bear that Mike gives to her, was originally Will’s (as shown in s1 &2). This gray bear is coming right in between Mike and El (at the end of s3). They even kiss , while El presses the bear right in between them.  In conclusion these romantic bears represent Will. * I mean that whole awkward kiss (where Mike’s eyes are open and he doesn’t kiss back- happens in Will’s room, in front of Will’s open closet,  with Will’s bear smushed between them (pretty blatant foreshadowing).

dinosaurs- This one is probably a stretch but we see this boy has tons of dinosaurs (at least 6). He starts to info-dump on El about how much he loves them. But, she has no interest. And if the wtf look didn’t make this obvious.

She even gets up and walks away, ignoring his tangent about dinosaurs. 

She literally couldn’t care less about his interest in them. 

But in spite of this, we see Mike gave her Rory in s3 (since it’s in her bedroom). And in s2 we see him sadly look at Rory, with 2 other dinosaurs in frame. This, along with s1 implies he has a huge collection of various dinosaurs .But his collection is missing one of the most popular dinosaur species... the brachiosaurus (the long necked dinosaur).

And right after this scene in s2 scene, we go to Will’s room. And he has a huge brachiosaurus! This boy couldn’t even afford a halloween costume and had to have his hand-made by his mom... but he could afford this huge -fancy dinosaur replica? I bet Mike bragged about his dinosaur collection to Will (like he did with El). But Will being a nerd, was actually impressed. So Mike actually gave him his best/fav toy in his collection- kind of like what he did with Rory.

frogs- This is the most hilarious thing to me. I laughed for like 20 minutes on my rewatch. In s1 Will has a GIANT stuffed plushie of a frog next to his jaws poster and teddy bear. I’m dead! Will doesn’t even disagree with the “frog face“ insult. 

He’s just like ‘well, he’s my frog face’ . Time to snuggle with this frog that looks just like Mike . Will is so in love but also low key savage dragging Mike like that. I can only imagine Dustin and Lucas saying “nah, you don’t look like a frog”. And poor baby-Mike asking Will what he thinks, and Will not being able to lie, just saying “ Well... some people like frogs.”  XD

We also see that in s2 the frog is missing but the Jaws-poster, coin jar, and the bear (we later see El holding in s3) remain .Probably to indicate this is when Will started to subconsciously suppress his feelings for Mike. Although @theclericwill pointed out -that , instead, Mike may have used the frog-plushie as a pillow... for his frog-face XD

Throwing shade at Mileven/mileven shippers in s2 

In the Montauk pitch (later named Stranger things) they describe the Mike and El dynamic by saying “ If Mike is the Eliot of our show,Eleven is our Et.” (AKA they’re from different planets)

-In s2 , Erica  is forcing He-man and barbie to make out. Lucas angrily separates the two. And then this discussion happens.

Erica: “Hey , They’re in love!”

Lucas (livid- and standing right next to a rainbow): “No, actually,  they’re not. They don’t even exist on the same planet.”

Not to mention I doubt it was a coincident they had a (bratty) pre-pubescent girl be the proxy for most mileven shippers.Like not all mileven shippers are bad, but almost all the toxic ones (that the Duffers have to deal with) are tween girls. And to the Duffers, only a child could think 2 people are ‘in love’ after a week of knowing each other. Or that El could understand such things like romance- given the fact that her and Mike are from different planets (given how El has no experience with the outside world).Mike even says in s2,  he can’t hate Max because he ‘doesn’t know’ her (despite knowing her as long as he knew El). Meaning he doesn’t love El since he doesn’t know her. 

Plus, El told Mike, he treats her like ‘garbage’ and ‘a pet’ . And Finn after s1, said that the Duffers told him Mike thought of El as a puppy, and she is even compared to Dart (a demo-dog in s2). Mike asking Dustin, angrily “What, You have a bond? Just cause he likes nougat (eggos)?” Being a  blatant dig at people obsessing over this shallow aspect of their relationship.

Mileven was also compared to that  of family members. In s1, right before they kissed, she asks “will you be like my brother?” (while wearing Nancy’s dress). And Mike also referred to her as his ‘cousin’ . Not to mention, El loved ted’s laz-eboy chair (and Nancy said Karen and Ted “never loved each other” ). And right before Karen is about to cheat on Ted - she looks at him sleeping in the chair (and the lyrics are ‘I should have walked away’). 

It’s pretty hilarious, since so many people try to ‘no-homo’ byler by saying Mike thinks of Will as a brother/or family- yet, their relationship has never been directly compared to a sibling (unlike mileven).

People also seem to not realize Mike lied in s2 (just like he did in s3). He thought El was dead in s2. He told Max it “got her like it did bob” and then he made a spectacle in front of everyone saying “I never gave up on you”. Which was a blatant lie (since he just told Max a few minutes earlier, she was dead -_-). Mike simply blamed himself for her death (he said they needed her to save Will and even referred to her as a “weapon”). So when she died he felt the most responsible- and was hoping she was alive (and would answer his call) to alleviate his own guilt. Not because he loved her (that was an act). When he saw Will’s dead body, but heard his voice, he went on a rescue mission to save Will (from another dimension). But, Mike didn’t even bother going into the woods after seeing El outside his window (something he did for Will in ep 1, during a storm). And then in s3 Mike couldn’t even bother to call El and apologize- but ran to apologize to Will in the woods during a storm (bringing that whole parallel -full circle).

Plus, El told Mike, he treats her like ‘garbage’ and ‘a pet’ . And Finn after s1, said that the Duffers told him Mike thought of El as a puppy, and she is even compared to Dart (a demo-dog in s2). Mike asking Dustin, angrily “What, You have a bond? Just cause he likes nougat (eggos)?” A blatant dig at people obsessing over this shallow aspect of their relationship.

Bob and Mike parallels- the Rubik cube

Both are unathletic, smart, love comics, the only 2 to not treat Will ‘different’- and would do anything to protect their loved ones. And they also had crushes on Byers in childhood, and tried to give their Byers normalcy (despite them not being a ‘normal family’). They purposely display, and have Will -mirror Joyce- and Mike -mirror Bob- in multiple shots, throughout s2.

And both Mike and Bob are AV club leaders. Bob mentioned in one of the  earlier episodes  that he founded the Hawkins Middle AV club . And Mike later grabs Bob’s Rubik cube, and mentions this after his death (to solidify the connection- even if subconscious in our minds. He even proclaims after this “we can’t let him die in vain” . And this is when Mike makes the plan to help Will (before El shows up). 

gif credit: cath-avery, dailystrangerthings