#the duffers are good writers

[in-deep]

Mike is straight. Byler endgame would come out of nowhere for his character.

I'm getting really frustrated with some reasons people use to rebut byler proof... The main one being this one.

I could argue extensively that Mike is queer. It is written subtextually all over the show - Mike is not like other straight characters in the show, and there are multiple parallels to queer-coded characters. If you took off your heteronormative rose-tinted glasses, you might be able to pick up on some of what the show is showing you, rather than explicitly telling you.

But even if he was explicitly shown to be straight! Why is it that in media queer characters always need to be explicitly queer from the beginning? Otherwise it's bait or fan service or bad writing? Queer people are allowed to discover themselves and figure themselves out! In fact that in and of itself is great representation! Mike's queer story would probably be really relatable to many!

PLUS! Do NOT try and tell me that Mileven were built up romantically in a natural way. First time I watched the show (January! I was very late to it ahah) Mileven actually shocked me a little - I knew they were going to date later, but it felt so random and almost a little like they didn't know what they were doing. I personally felt like they only kissed because Mike felt like that's what he was meant to do.

Lucas teasing him about only talking about El (when really Mike only talked about El as a means to get to Will, his main priority). Nancy telling Mike she thought he liked her (and Mike immediately denies it). El asking if he'll be like her brother (no. it's different... i mean, i guess its not). And then he kisses her after that?

Quite frankly, if Mike and Eleven are endgame they wrote them so weirdly. Like made some really weird writing choices (bad ones) that are too many to even get to in this post, but I am working on a really lengthy analysis on the bad writing of Mike/El (and why that's so brilliant).

AND!!!! Mike and Will are the classic example of the childhood friends to lovers trope. One common example of this trope is shown in character A being in love with character B (and has been for a while). Character B usually has another love interest, character C who is either mysterious or popular. Usually a scene where character B says "oh. A and I are just friends." while we see character A looking sad. Character B & C have some sort of relationship, but eventually it fails and in the midst of that relationship falling a part, character B realises that character A has been there all along.

Now, I personally believe Mike has feelings for Will and has had them for a while. But, even if he didn't. Don't try and tell me this wouldn't be completely fine for a straight couple. But suddenly, when they're queer, it's poor writing and fan service. Yet again, queer media is held to much higher standards that heteronormative straight media.

Anyway. In short. Byler endgame. Byler supremacy. Byler is love, Byler is life. Amen.

[rigginsstreet]

The thing about billy is that he was marked for death the second his mom left him with neil.

He was either gonna die by Neil’s hands or, as we saw on the show, he was gonna go down such a self destructive path it would send him into an early grave of his own making.

So him dying at 18 isn’t really shocking. The part of it that was never written in the stars for him previously is that in his final moments he got to take some of his power back. He made the choice to stand against his abuser (the mindflayer) in the name of saving someone else. He got to fight back against the thing controlling him and contribute to its demise. Something he likely would’ve never gotten a chance to do with neil.

The tragedy is that he dies anyway, and no one can even give him the courtesy of acknowledging what that tragedy is. Not the writers, not the fandom, not the characters within the show.

His death becomes Max’s tragedy, it can’t even be his own. Nobody cares what billys death means in the context of billys life. Just like how nobody cared about billy when his mom left or when his dad was getting physical with him or when he started lashing out because of the abuse.

Nobody ever cared for billy, so why was he expected to care about anyone else?

He was never treated as a person, just a presence. And an inconvenient one at that. So of course he was never gonna make it to a long fulfilling life. And nobody ever thought to step in and intervene because well, Billys a problem, right? So what does it matter if he’s gone?

And you start to realize how inherently cruel the entire stranger things narrative is because there’s a clear line of people “worth” saving and those who aren’t. And if someone’s too much trouble then well, they’re expendable.

Billy was too much trouble for his mom to make her clean escape. He was too much trouble for not fitting in to Neil’s ideals of the perfect son. He was too much trouble for max as a brother. Too much trouble with all the rage and hate he had built up for the world around him for not protecting him.

So in the end, really, what was left for him to do?

[imsodishy]

Your post about all the events of s2 happening in a week reminded me of other stupid thi mg s that happen in st that the duffers just didn’t even bother trying to explain. Like in s3 when the hospital gets pretty much destroyed and all the staff are killed? Like there’s literally no consequences to that. Like nobody went hey what happened to our local hospital and all the people who died there?? Nope. Nothing. It’s a small town so it really makes no sense

yeah, the duffers are king of ignoring consequences, they just move briskly past like "no time for that! on to the next thing!" and then hoping it's been long enough that you've forgotten about it by the time the next season drops, and that you binge the season so quick that you don't really have time to think about it. (this is imo a problem with full season drops in general but stranger things is a really glaring example of it)

Like, they worked so hard to get all their main characters back to Hawkins for their Big Apocalyptic Cliffhanger ™️ at the end of S4, but the stills coming out for S5 they're all just going to school like normal, so like... what was the point? lmao

[chirpsythismorning]

The Duffer Brothers rushing to put The Last Of Us on the ST5 inspo board after Ep 3

[ciarasdiaryy]

the Duffer brothers in 2024:

[jonathanssweatercollection]

you still resent nancy and jonathan for getting together???? for “hurting steve’s feelings”??? despite the fact that he verbally supported their relationship like 2 hours after seeing them together. this from a season that released 6 fucking years ago. a season prior to him saying that he was NOT in love with nancy anymore. do you want me to call shawn levy and tell him of your dilemma. bestie do you need to rewatch the source material

[thatgirlwithasquid]

yknow. sometimes when i see anti posts i just sit here and think ‘damn. you would not have gotten Jennifer’s Body’

[devondespresso]

realizing they probably didn't make eddies death bad so they could revive him but because for sone reason they think making deaths really stupid and nonsensical in-universe is the same as a death being sad and gut-punching because they did the same god damn thing to bob

like. bobs death was supposed to make us sad and feel like he was taken from us unfairly because thats the impact it has on joyce. but to do that they decided he should make it through the entire god-damned lab unscathed so he can stand there gawking at joyce like a dumbass just waiting around to get attacked by a demodog. he stands there with the only thing between him and the dogs is one flimsy ass door and he just loiters around taking his sweet time, living it up as a sitting duck.

want people to feel like a character was taken from them suddenly and unfairly? make the death smart. make something happen from the environment or the timing or something completely out if their control that fucking sucks but you know theres no way out. characters making stupid choices for the sole purpose of making the scripted thing happen is the worst possible option.

and its not like they don't know how to write good deaths. barb and chrissys deaths (as much as i miss my girls) were well written. i felt their absence and i missed them with the characters in universe but i never felt like their deaths were cheap. and i still desperately wish chrissy lived because i love her but i still appreciate her death scene because it was really well handled.

[ickypuppi3]

i’m confused because is that not literally how she’s written in the show- her storylines do revolve her love life 99% of the time

like as shitty as that is, it is canon & surely you can’t blame fans for how crap the shows writing is and how characters are depicted?

[sinclairstarz]

i have so many takes on stranger things and this is The Site to yap random takes into the void but at the same time like half of my takes are negative and i feel like im being a party pooper. like girl dont be a negative nelly!!

[roosterbox]

Fic Rec Friday 6/16/2023

Title: The Best Part of Me is That I’m the B-Side to You

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Category: M/M

Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson

Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, And ensemble

Additional Tags: Hurt and comfort, Angst, Established Relationship, kind of, Fix-It, not a slow burn we burn fast like cheap cigarettes, [magnolia park's "i'm back on my bullshit" plays in the background]

Summary: Maybe it was too early to say that. Maybe it was too early to say Steve was in love. He usually fell hard. He thought he was in love with Nancy Wheeler. He fell hard for her too.

But Eddie Munson?

Eddie Munson is intoxicating.

----

AKA the one where Steve and Eddie have been dating Eddie's entire senior year.

———

*heavy breathing*

Okay. So. This one is a bit of a doozy for me. I hope the 80k isn’t too intimidating for you - if it is, I get it - because holy shit I cannot recommend it enough. You know a fic is fucking good when you read it once and immediately resign yourself to never reading it again because it’s just… too much. That was me months ago when I first read this. The very thought brought me to tears. And if that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t listen to Head Over Heels again until like a week or two ago, lol. And now I’ll have to wait months and months again before I can listen to it without immediately tearing up. The power of incredible writing.

This is probably (definitely) my favorite of the ‘Steve and Eddie are secretly dating’ subgenre of Steddie fics. As well as my favorite ‘Eddie and Steve knew each other while Steve worked at Scoops’ story. They’re both very niche genres, of course. So much of this fic has kind of wormed itself into my brain and my own headcanons that re-reading it for this rec was an eye-opening experience. “Wait, that was from this? I thought I made that up!”

I never would have thought that a substitute phrase for I Love You could make me tear up, but dammit, if I even slightly think of the words “I’m forever yours,” I’m gone. In tears as we speak. With that out of the way, yes - I cried again while re-reading it. Not as much as I did the first time, mind you, but yeah. Y’all know me; I am as soft as a gently baked batch of cookies.

To summarize: cute boys being cute together and almost dying makes Roosterbox cry like a baby, lol.

Highly, highly recommended.

Important side note: No link, except to the login page. The writer has locked the fic for the time being. Not gonna complain or judge them for it (if they’re reading this, I understand - you do what you feel you must), just FYI. You can still find it if you have an Ao3 account.

———

Next Week: Okay guys, I’m gonna level with you. I think it’s time to dive headfirst into one of my favorite fic tropes. One that a loooooot of people aren’t into. For various reasons. And I get it. I do, I swear I do. But you know… it’s always been one of my comfort tropes. I am, of course, talking about the M word. Mpreg. And it’s my favorite type of Mpreg story: one where it isn’t explained. Is it ABO? Maybe but probably not. Is the guy trans? Maybe. Is it just that men can get pregnant in this universe? Maaaaaaaybe. Draw your own conclusions and/or have your own headcanon. Just enjoy the ride.

Oh, and it’s Arthur/Eames by the way. Figured that was important to mention.

Until next week, darlings ❤️

[infestedguest]

I am so sorry to my mutuals who are eddie stans, but my stranger things hot take is that all of Eddie Munson’s screen time would’ve been 100% better put to use developing existing characters.

[imsodishy]

the thing about stranger things is that it would have been better as an anthology. Like the individual season arcs, stripped of all the serialized bullshit, with new characters filling the rolls, you could make them work just fine.

Season 2 could have focused on the story of an alienated girl who's Different (maybe she’s an actual alien in this versuon, i dunno), with an overprotective parent. She digs into her own history to seek some independence and identity on her own. Bam! Tight little story.

Season 3 could so easily have just been about the Hargrove-Mayfields and just focused in on the possession as a metaphor for abuse storyline. Heart-rending.

Season 4 could have focused on the traumatized teens being targeted by a monster and been a tidy little Nightmare on Elm Street knockoff with it's own spin on it.

It gets bogged down dragging around dead weight from season to season because the duffers don't actually know what to do with half their characters but can't cut them loose, so they just stand around like NPCs and the bloated storylines barely interact with eachother except at the very begining and end of each season.

[kurokoros]

I’m... I’m sorry what??? I’m so late to this news, but first of all Netflix you already attempted a live action Death Note in 2017 and it was absolute garbage that was mocked by the entire anime community. And second of all you’re going to be giving it to the Duffer brothers, who have been shit at developing characters and creating and writing compelling mysteries for the last two seasons of their debut show?

[byersfanclub]

sometimes things are just meant to be dark comedy and don’t have to be that deep but that’s just imo 

[dungeons-are-too-cold]

honestly, i feel really fucking tired of people thinking the duffers are bad clueless stupid writers who dont think about their characters and make dumb thoughtless decisions .

there is so much care and precision and planning thats gone into stranger things as a whole, and i think that just because you cant see it immediately or on first watch doesnt mean that its not there. it means you need to watch closer

im especially frustrated with people who dont see that stranger things s4 is presenting us with this climax of sorts. it might not feel cohesive or complete yet BECAUSE ITS NOT DONE AND THE STORY ISNT OVER.

Of course it feels unfinished or might feel unsatisfactory. its like a cliff hanger. its the point in the story where the hero's reach their false victory or their lowest point, in this case its kind of both in a way. They arent supposed to win yet, things arent supposed to feel safe, and character's arcs are still being developed in the story. We are in the thick of it and we will get our answers, our full circle moments, our arc completions in season 5.

we arent supposed to have the answers yet, in fact i think the whole point of season 4 is to leave us with a sort of jarring "what the fuck" moment that leaves us with more questions, that leaves us with a feeling of "where the fuck do we go from here"

just because we dont have answers doesnt mean the duffers are bad writers. it means we havent seen the end of their stories.

Think about stranger things like this: its like if you took your favorite movie, thats 2 hours long, and stopped watching at the hour and thirty minute mark. of course its not gonna feel right or finished, you still have a half hour of the fucking movie left.

maybe dont jump to conclusions because s4 isnt tied up in a neat little bow. its different from other seasons for a reason and just hold your fucking horses and cool your fucking jets until season 5 comes out. Im so tired of this.