I miss ur posts sorry the shitty fandom drove you away it kinda did the same to me too so i get it. I hope you’re doing well

i hope you’re doing well too, friend. i’m glad that the silly things i did made you happy, that is such a good feeling to me.

i don’t know, i don’t think the fandom is necessarily shitty. the fandom is just another era of people desperate for a coming of age tale that naturalizes young, queer love. the problem is, like it normally is, people so afraid that they are going to get queer baited yet again that they search so hard to find evidence to back up their view points. thing is: that evidence is more plain than walking up to a bank robbery and finding the thief in the white and black striped shirt with the ski mask holding the sack with a $ on it. the show is queer coded to hell and back, just all depends on what the show runners and the network decide to go with for the end.

what drove me off is that real people started getting harassments and death threats and the parasocial relationship got way out of hand in the heat of the moment. let me not exclude myself, however, because i was also going through a lot at the time and the s4 arc was very healing to me and i definitely wrote “static re-connection” in a manic phase just prior to getting diagnosed with bipolar ii disorder. i think it hurt to have put effort into something that meant a lot to me to write, to be vulnerable enough to share it (i think i am a terrible writer and i am shocked at the positive feedback i got from writing it), and to find that vulnerability lost in a sea of tumultuous demand that turned sour. i wants to walk away because i wanted to be able to re-engage when s5 rolls around and not be so burnt on it, and to not associate that vulnerable feeling with such bad energy from the summer.

that wound up being a lot, but thank you again :) if any followers see this, i also miss you and your posts. go out and do something nice for someone today, they deserve it.

also, unrelated, fuck fascists. just as an aside.

not going to share it here because she hasn't on tumblr yet, but @naturallybrielle hit the nail on the head with their tiktok on what the root of so much of the toxicity in the byler fandom is (and the monopoly man fans too, don't get me wrong). they are 1000% justified in their decision to step away from byler analyses for the time. in their own words, "talking about byler and doing byler analyses was fun until it wasn't."

i think between the things said on tiktok comments, twitter, and also everywhere about nick re: 8flix, everyone could do with a reality check and work to hold others accountable for the things they say.

at the end of the day, stranger things is a tv show. is it an excellent one that almost definitely has an endgame with a generation-defining queer coming-of-age story? absolutely. but, that payoff should not come at the expense of others willing to volunteer their time, energy, and skills into making content for the byler fandom. people are people, not caricatures.

this fandom i s2g

oh well so as long byler is fucking endgame who fucking cares about what ST did huh. who fucking cares that they fucking sicced their fanbase on one man because of fucking scripts. who the fuck cares. corporations are evil until they confirm that blue and yellow are intentional. brands aren't our friends until they dangle the hope that our precious ship will be canon.

everything fucking sucks.

i will say: i am obsessed with how angry the lon lon rachers must be at the byler scene also winning the st writers twitter poll. 10/10 comedy

like i said from the get go -- there is a human on the other side of this, and i think a lot of you forgot that. i really don't mean for that to sound patronizing, it's just incredibly disheartening to see a fandom turn that quickly on someone who was just trying to help.

A Note on Scriptgate

I do feel really bad for Nick, it appears he got tricked by his source and has been running a legitimate donation based script service for years. At least that's how I see it at this point. While it might not be true, I think for my own sake I'm going to believe unless something else comes up. Money was involved, but he has disclosed that nothing has been spent and that people are free to refund. I have to respect that.

He's gone through so much abuse during this whole thing, I have especially just seen pure hatred and threats on twitter. Someone should NEVER be receiving death threats, he even got threats against his family and that's disgusting honestly.

I know that a lot of the byler community on here on tumblr have just wanted answers, me included of course. As evident if you scroll through my post. Most of what I seen has been quite respectful. All the joke posts were hilarious and the anger was understandable, I was angry too. Even then most of the anger didn't include actual threats. But, there was still some that were threats and bullying, and that's truly disheartening.

There's a lot to learn and take away from this situation. I'm not trying to preach or anything, but these are things that I have to try remember too. This is some of what I've observed through this period of time, even before the scriptgate truly began when there were delays.

I think one of the most important things to remember is that abuse and death threats ARE NOT equal to criticism. You can be critical of someone and ask for an explanation WITHOUT bullying and abuse. Always try to approach things with some level of compassion.

I asked Nick if he knew anything more about the veracity of the script and if he was still going to post further Stranger Things scripts, regardless of their source and legitimacy. Here's what he said:

Actually kinda feeling like Nick had good intentions and got fucked over, thoughts?

will the wise wednesday

this has straight-up gone from one of the most wholesome, supportive fandoms to an incredibly toxic and aggressive disaster from one unverified tweet posted by an account operated under license by a company who wants you to pay $2.99 a month for letting someone log into your account outside of your home and is taking folks to court over a parody musical. all of this versus an individual who runs an entire script database AS A SIDE HOBBY because he believes in archiving and making scripts accessible for education use.

i'm really ashamed, honestly. incredibly disappointing. i'm done for a while. this is so incredibly draining to have to sit and read. maybe take a second to think before you quickly post or share a meme that is only intended to hurt someone, there are real people on the other end of the screen.

all of this

what about the s3 scripts? those have been up for years. what about the s2 snow ball script which spoiled will's love for mike 2 seasons early? are those supposed to be fake too?

why would the stranger writers let #bylerscript trend for THREE DAYS before saying anything?

either nick decided to start scamming folks for the s4 scripts specifically, or, he's been writing fake scripts for YEARS for a very small audience with no financial gain until this point? it doesn't make sense

nick has 30+ years in the tv industry and has been running 8flix as a respected academic resource for years - and he apparently risked it all for an elaborate years-long scam for a fandom he only started engaging in two weeks ago?

(at the same time, i can't see the stranger writers pushing a lone guy under the bus if they were just trying to cover things up - they have to know they're ruining this guys reputation)

why are the scripts getting copyright stricken when posted publicly if they're not legit?

damn the way the tides will turn so fast because of one tweet; the scripts aren't fakes y'all, this reeks of PR stunt

idk, i feel like we won't get both sets of wheeler and byers siblings paired off, it feels like an odd writing choice that - while isn't technically incorrect - feels a little messy.

i'm not worried about byler. i am, however, worried for jancy. i feel like they are trying to lead nancy into realizing she could be happy with steve, but i don't think that she'll make that choice voluntarily.

ergo, i am concerned jonathan isn't gonna make it out of s5 alive.

idk why everyone's getting so upset about all the religious zealot posts on the tag, don't y'all know we have service coming on sunday? time to repent is neigh.

decided just re-orienting the text wasn’t heartbreaking enough so here’s some color to really drive home the hurt:

anyone have any super lighthearted fic reccs? felling pretty depressed (at rink o mania) and could use something light and gay af

stranger things rn is giving me the same feeling i get when i finish a 300K slow burn friends to lovers fic only to realize it says “Chapter 21/25” and “Last Updated: 09/28/2018”

interviewer: so how did you first prepare when outlining the plot of stranger things back in 2014?

duffer bros: *look at each other, slowly turn laptop around to show ao3 bookmarks page*