gayofthefae - Tumblr blog

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

Mike and El aren't "100% secure never gonna break up" because I'm only pretty sure that Nancy and Jonathan are gonna stay together and in season 4, I was only pretty sure Lucas and Max would get back together but I acknowledged a possibility that they would remain just friends but very close and still be the main pairing for each other onscreen. Nothing is certain. Because you haven't seen the ending. And with that Lucas and Max example, I was unsure of Lucas and Max and MIKE was the one that couldn't tell El he loved her. I was unsure of even the one couple that didn't have any (relationship) threat. No one is 100% safe because we don't know what's gonna happen. The only couple I was sure of in season 4 was Joyce and Hopper because they had very clear and consistent romantic buildup and references and hadn't been together yet. My closest comparison to that is Byler.

Honestly, I'm also realizing as I type this that the main lack of knowing stemmed from me knowing that plots have to invoke change and an established couple breaking up is a change, and being a change trumps being illogical. Joyce and Hopper or Mike and Will not getting together would be a complete lack of change.

Joyce and Hopper changed to dating. Jonathan and Nancy are shifting into their future and away from Hawkins. Lucas and Max changed into maturity that they didn't have before. Mike and El didn't change before, in fact, they reused(/extended with a tone shift to more seriousness) a PREVIOUS CONFLICT. Mike and Will haven't changed and won't if they do anything but get together that ends on good platonic terms.

Couples have to change. Getting together is a change. Breaking up is a change. Maturing is a changer. Elmike was already treated pretty seriously and that's used as reason for them to not break up but it's actually the opposite because they have nowhere to go but to break up now, as it is a story and further events are required to get to an end point. Byler were already on good platonic terms and and learning something that doesn't change anything is inherently NOT a change.

Realizing, even Will coming out to Jonathan was important because it was a CHANGE! They had been distant for a while and that was included in order to set up that moment as something that had needed to happen, a vulnerable conversation they hadn't had in a while.

Honestly the only established couple I'm 100% sure of is Dustin and Suzie because they have no plots and therefore no reason for change. Sidelined couples are endgame couples. Shoutout Mr. and Mrs. Finch on Bridgerton you're the cutest thing I've ever seen I'm so happy you both love cheese.

Jopp3r and J@ncy have available changes while staying together in committing further as they are adults or becoming adults who are capable of independent decisions like going to college together, moving in together, marriage, etc. All child couples, aka everyone else, do not have that change as an option (although some people have tried reaching for it under the idea of a larger time jump, even legality does not equal narrative plausibility) so their only possibilities are to commit to fight to reunite: Lum@x(just realized! parallel to when Elmike was romantic!), or break up (M!leven). Other options for any two people not together or engaged with another in-relationship change include as follows: getting together. That's it.

All couples but Mike and El have other options of change to build up to achieving other than breaking up. If they didn't, breaking up would be their only option, but they have alternates. For Mike and El, that is not the case. Lucas and Max are only even safe because she's in a coma, or if they decide to extend their get-back-together arc. The kids' only options are have an existing possible change or breakup. Lucas and Max have an existing possible change.

#stranger things #byler endgame #endgame couples #byler #jopper predictions #people have said it as like a cute idea but now i'm thinking about it more genuinely because what other change do they have but larger #commitment #elmike parallels #and as i said dustin is dating a guest star which doesn't count towards this #as his romance is not his main plot #elmike breakup #st predictions

20 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

Thinking about the person who said "All of Mike and El's problems are because of Mike and El, all of Mike and Will's problems are because of Mike and El."

That's it. That's it right there. That's all you need. They established a conflict that needs resolution and that conflict is Mike and El consistently that has yet to have a solution that applies to everything it affects. It seems complicated but it's actually very simple because they made sure that there was only one issue present to solve - hard to solve, yes, but singular. You can't have contradictory conflicts if you only have one conflict.

#stranger things #byler #byler comfort

27 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

The fact that Mike and Will were singled out from their friend group from the beginning, not just in comparison to Mike and El shows me that this is a love story not a love triangle. As the seasons progress, El is worked more and more into their friend group and town, making more relationships with people other than Mike to secure her place of normalcy and status in their friend group. Season 2, Hopper, season 3, Max, season 4, Will (, Jonathan, Joyce). Her screentime is spent integrating her into being just like everybody else in Mike's life as a permanent fixture that has other ties and therefore would not disappear if they weren't connected anymore. Will spends his seasons spending alone time with Mike, having individual plots and being emphasized and singled out even when they're in a group setting like in season 3 - they still had Mike chase after him and not Will so they had a moment alone.

If Will was going to just retreat back into blending in with the friend group, they would have spent more time on his relationships with Lucas, Dustin, Max, and El, but they didn't. They spent all their time making sure you knew that they're a friend group and they're "all best friends" but especially Mike and Will. If there's no romance, what's the point of "especially". Will having feelings for Mike does the "especially" that would be necessary for him being the most important to come out to on its own, you didn't need to point it out throughout the series.

Mike and Will were singled out before Mike even met El and that's why it's a love story and not a love triangle. Because it was already there. And because they were emphasized for years completely disconnected from onscreen or marketing idea of competition. If it was a love triangle, it would have only come up to threaten Elmike's relationship like how Steve and Nancy don't have moments between their breakup and season 3. Their stories aren't about each other so they don't need each other narratively when it isn't in relation to Jonathan. Mike and Will exist outside of Mike and El and have from the beginning. It can't be a love triangle if the second relationship has no bearing on the first.

#will el contrasts #byler elmike contrasts #el hopper arc #el hopper #byler #stranger things #willelmike triangle

26 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

Going back to the most basic barebones pattern recognition fact that Mike and Will are endgame because they have more one on one scenes than Mike and El.

#byler comfort #byler proof #stranger things #tv tropes #byler tropes #byler #willelmike triangle

15 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

It breaks my heart to think about how Will thought that Mike, his bestest friend, did not try to talk to him because he's been too busy with his life and it breaks my broken heart once more to think about how Mike thought that Will, his bestest friend, because he's been too busy with his own life like guys, you guys have been best friends since you were infants, please don't do that to yourselves and me

37 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

Thoughts on "Escape from Camazotz"

Oppressive Suburbia, Conformity, and Season 5 Themes

I've long thought that a major focus of Season 5 will be the contrast between the families of The Wheelers and The Byers, and exploring how non-traditional family environments can be freeing vs the oppressive structure of the nuclear family.

In a Wrinkle In Time, Camazotz is a planet controlled by the big bad of the book, the "IT", who forces the citizens into a conformity that resembles American suburbia. All of the houses the same, the citizens the same, doing the same things at the same time without individual identity. Without anything different. Different means a lot of things, but with Stranger Things dropping different in reference to Will's identity and the presumable themes of this season, it will heavily codify as queerness and how it threatens the cisheterosexual family model.

Henry was raised in the 1950s, a decade still revered by conservatives for it's traditional family dynamics that supposedly were the peak of culture and happiness for all. That was all a lie, of course, and Henry knew so as he shows to Nancy and Eleven during his monologue. The second most conservative decade aside from the 1950s in American society is widely considered to be the 1980s.

The Creels will serve in parallel to The Wheelers; the worst example of what they could become and the damage that this type of family could do to a child that is different in any way. Notice how Vecna selectively shows Nancy visions of The Wheelers dying, but not anyone else she may consider family or friends (like Jonathan).

That is; unless they change their ways and come together as a healthy functioning family facing their traumas, The Wheelers will be toast.

Karen has been moved up to a main character role this season. Ted's actor says the father starts to show up more for Holly (hold that) and realizes he wants to act differently. Holly has been recast. Finn has said Mike goes on a much more personal journey this season, and steps up as a leader.

Oh, also: the catalyst for all of this is that Holly goes missing. The contrast will help show how the Byers (including El and Hopper here) were able to pull together and help solve Will's disappearance, versus how the Wheelers as a closed off nuclear family grapple with Holly's vanishing.

Each of the Byers is in some kind of a non-1950s conformist relationship, but particularly Will (not in one now but we all know he will be). I think El might represent, after she breaks up with Mike, the fear of the unmarried woman being satisfied without a husband. The above shot really emphasizes my point.

I predict that Will will end up coming out to his family rather early on, and we will see all of them immediately accept him with little surprise or push-back. Will is a visible gay man who comes from an open minded non traditional family (divorced, non-married, adoptive) that is willing to have honest conversations.

But this theme will place the most focus on the Wheelers. Mike is the main character of said family and this will particularly focus on his arc, and his acceptance of his queerness in the midst of suburban conformity.

He is not visible, he comes from a Reagan-supporting family who don't communicate with each other. He is not particularly close with his family like Will is. He pushes his feelings down and tries his damn hardest to be normal despite it all. His trauma hasn't really been addressed at all. He is falling back into his usual habits - the one thing he dared to do different (grow his hair long) has gone back to how it was.

It's not all doom and gloom though. This season above all will be a redemption arc of the American nuclear family, how they choose to escape their conformity and learn to be there for each other, thus overpowering Vecna. Not that the Wheelers are going to end this personally.

"Great, more hysteria. Just what we need". "It's the news, now indistinguishable from the tabloids".

#stranger things theory

218 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 1 day

Text

They literally know how to do an "I'm sorry I couldn't say 'I love you' plotline" well because they did it with Mike in season 4.

"Best friends". They created a contrast AGAIN. Simple, casual, sweet. 'I'm sorry, here's why, best friends'. It's yet another reused but made to be dramatic with El. The first time was perfect: low stakes, earnest, not needed but he wanted to say it anyways. The second time was an attempt that didn't fill it's shoes: high stakes, necessitated, dramatic and incentivized.

Not just her life but we don't talk enough about how he thought he would lose her if he didn't say it but he didn't think he would lose Will. Will had already forgiven him at the top of their conversation but he kept talking. They had Will forgive him from the get-go to establish that the goal for Mike was never just to get Will back, it was to make him feel loved and wanted. It was to say "you forgive me and we are going to work together because everything is crazy but I want you to know that we aren't reuniting because everything is crazy, we're reuniting because I miss you and I want you back; we're reuniting because I want you here."

Mike and El had a nice moment but they didn't state security like they did with Mike and Will, in fact, they interrupted a suddenly serious moment. They could have just had the pizza thing. They could have had her say she forgives him even though he hadn't said it yet. But they didn't. He didn't have full reason to believe there wasn't still threat and their nice moment wasn't fleeting/outweighed by his actions. He had reason to believe he still needed to redeem himself. He didn't have that with Will.

#pizza scene #ily speech #apology scene #byler elmike contrasts #stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #textual analysis

14 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Video

#keeper #oh my god #wholesome #meme

635K notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Text

love that buck had two very private and emotional coming out moments with eddie and maddie and then decided that actually the best way to come out is to just grab tommy and kiss him senseless in front of everyone else good for him honestly

#he was like #that's the two big ones the rest can figure it out #tevan #bucktommy #911 abc #also i love that evan is included in their ship name that's really cute nobody's had that

452 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Note

Fr he very obviously slowed down his tone to be like "my quote unquote couch" that was a whole thing the episode ended with a chair and the season rementioned a couch at the end it was a WHOLE. THING. They aren't coming back to it because it was just for that season.

People will be miserable because Oliver killed Couch Theory...

first of all he didn't kill anything lmao AND the only people i've seen be miserable about it are the people who think they've been proven right about couch theory 'never being real', and now they're like SEE ME YOU CAN'T HAVE FUN IN THIS FANDOM BE SAD AND ANGRY WITH ME. nobody who actually likes the couch theory gives a fuck, and all oliver said was they're not going there this season

69 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Text

i watch ahead of my mom and she asked if we could skip episodes 2 and 3 and go back for them bc she saw online Buck kissed a man

One thing watching 911 has taught me, is that my mom doesn't want me to watch ahead of her anymore now that she knows Buck is more than an ally loool

12 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Text

babe wake up new eddie reaction pic just dropped

857 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Text

Jancy, Lumax, Will main character, El independence, El and Hopper...I can literally only think of positives it's my favorite season. Literally the only thing that season lacks that I miss deeply is Elmax. That's it. Other than that it's perfect

I know this has been said many times but... Except Kali and Byler, what exactly are we supposed to memorize from this season?

#jopp3r are cute and i'm onboard but they aren't like a fight for them couple yk i'm indifferent to their presence but if it's here i'm enjoy #ing #stranger things

187 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Text

This pointed out to me too that the nun stuff was not at all established until after they switched networks...it was a retcon they made in season 6 to serve a story they are now able to tell just like they got rid of Natalia offscreen. They're making changes to adjust it to the story they can finally set in motion.

ever since someone pointed out that buck died / dated a death doula and now eddie having catholic guilt / is dating a nun i have not been the same.

big brain people pls expand upon this because i am losing my goddamn mind rn

something something “don’t know why i thought it would be such a good idea dating a death doula”

“to be fair, you did just die”

“welcome back to the land of the living” idk mind racing

#911 abc #eddie diaz #911 marisol #buddie predictions #tim minear #eddie buck parallels #eddie diaz is queer

210 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 2 days

Text

Could this be about Will surviving in the UD without water?