so im getting pics of this scene for no reason and I noticed something mildly interesting. namely how they did this little snack explosion effect

as you can see this is a normal vending machine setup mhm

but hm this looks a little weird

so right before the explosion happens the candy coils (the internet says that's what they're called) are moved back and the snacks are balanced against the edge so they could just slam the machine and they would fall down. you can in fact see that the kit kats are the only ones to not fall and my theory is that they probably taped a couple of them together (i kno they taped the snickers cuz that boy is fully floating off the edge) and then they got stuck behind that little black thing on the divider? does anyone care about this? either way now you know

btw

Apparently 2 of my friends sent you byler analyses so that you could understand why we think that byler is the one that will be without mentionning mileven but I didn't see you posting about them. Byler theories may not all be accurate but many of them are a proof that Mike is dealing with internalized homophobia and no he isn't using El. He likes her. It's just that he realized that they aren't compatible cause they don't bring each other what they need. A pretty explicit scene is the scene in season 3 where Mike wanted some (rainbow-colored) skittles. If you noticed, El gave him everything (all the snacks) except the one he truly wanted. You can also see the difference between Lumax an mileven during that scene. Lumax were talking, laughing,... while mike and El were reading the ingredients of the snacks. It's pretty obvious they don't communicate much and that they are more like a physical couple than anything else if you start looking at them from season 3 until now. That's why they constantly fight. Can you believe that El even denied the fact that Mike was being bullied? How the hell can't Mike even confess to El about his own problems without El making him feel bad for feeling that way. El also got hurt by many things Mike told her. Also not mileven being associated with Romeo and Juliet ... we know they didn't end up well actually..

yeah, maybe you noticed that I've got a lot of ask recently and i haven't posted all of them bc i don't have time for this (also half of them is something like "nobody likes you👹 stay away from byler👹👹" ) so yeah 😭 sorry if i missed it.

so, you're telling me that your byler proof is what candies mike choosed and what he was doing with eleven 😰 alright.

1) mike literally made will stand up and walk away bc he wanted space to talk to eleven, but later we can see that lucas and max could sit next to them but Will is still standing somewhere alone😭😭😭

2) yea mike and el were reading instead of talking but maybe it's bc it was awkward between them? look, max is playing with Lucas, she's dumping him all the time- she loves to be independent (lucas is a victim help😭😭) but it always happening off screen, they're just randomly break up and then get back together and i love them for that 😭 but mileven? it was their first break up, also it was a big misunderstanding and mike is a victim in s3 like fr, everyone's attacking him and for what 😭 it was kinda awkward between them what is something normal to me, at least they talked a bit and they were sitting and doing something together😭

Make Me Choose | @softasawhisper asked: Two Favourite Seasons - Part 2 (part 1) - (in/sp/o)

What a ǝbuɐɹʇs turn of events … // STRANGER THINGS (2016 - ) Open images in new tab for better quality!

I take it back actually, you absolutely can write a normal girl AU Eleven to be really compelling and in the same spirit as the original character. You just have to make her autistic. Like overly blunt, socially awkward, gets overwhelmed, worried about being fundamentally different from other people autistic.

And Mike is like sooo into that oh my god—

Scalding, unnecessary take that I'm going to use as an excuse to yap about my hyperfixation characters more than anything, but El's character is actually impossible to stick into coffee shop fanfiction No Supernatural Shit AUs. That's Jane you're writing about. Jane and El are not the same person. At all. And like, Jane is interesting to think about, don't get me wrong. I have thought about Jane. I love Jane. She's adorable and vaguely autistic. But Jane != Eleven.

Eleven is the way she is almost entirely because of her experience/trauma of growing up in the lab and having supernatural murder powers. Her main characters traits are being a self-sacrificing hero and not being sure who she is due to the fact she grew up in an isolated sterile inhuman environment. Unless you're directly translating those things into something unsupernatural (like growing up in a fucked up cult or something and like fighting her way out and now she'll fight to protect other people from similar experiences or something idk) you're writing about Jane the normal gorl who got to grow up with a normal personality in a normal world. And like, you can do that. It's fine it's fandom do whatever u want. But personally, the first thing I come up with when I birth an AU is what crazy powers and fucked up backstory we give Eleven here. Also how do we make her and everyone else really fucking cool but that...might be beside the point idk.

The powers have to basically ruin or have had ruined her life at one point. They have to be a curse that she either reclaims or gets rid of at the end. If she isn't tortured she isn't Eleven Stranger Things lmao

And then yeah yeah my next step is to figure out how Mike AND THE OTHERS OK but mostly Mike get involved in this. Which brings me to my next point: Jane and Mike have no real reason to talk to each other. Mike x Jane is just Normal Gorl x Normal Boy which is like, fine sure if that's what you want, but also you kinda just erased everything interesting about their dynamic. You wanna know what makes El and Mike's relationship so compelling? Objectively? I'm objectively right about everything I'm about to say here? Ok their dynamic is this: Eleven is the most important person in the world, and Mike is the only boy who will ever love her. And yeah that second one sounds really sad but 1. yeah it kinda is :) 2. its not really true that's just what El thinks which is like a major theme for her character TO ME, her underestimating how 'normal' she is esp in her later years 3. it also is kinda true because he's the only boy romantically interested in her who actually understands and experienced all the supernatural/lab trauma bullshit and is actively fighting beside her through the plot of the show, and 4. he's literally perfect and also the only boy she'll ever love and need so it all works out.

And to explain the first one, I mean, you know she's saved the world twice right? She kinda literally is the most important person in the world considering its up to her to stop the apocalypse probably in the end? But its not the being important exactly that makes Mike love her ok, that's more of a meta character thing. Like she doesn't have to literally be the key to saving the world and the most powerful being in the universe. Its more that she has to have something really special about her that draws Mike specifically to her and binds him to her permanently and inseparably and he belongs to her forever and ever and they die in each other's arms. Like she deserves. In canon I imagine objectively and correctly that it went like this: Mike is a natural outcast collector and protector due to his pervasive unconscious need to be needed and his fear of losing the few people who like him, who meets the ultimate outcast girl who literally has nothing and needs him in a very real way, and this gives him an excuse to just pour his entire self into her, fulfilling one of his deepest interpersonal needs. The best part is that she's super selfless and amazing and she loves him the same right back so its actually a beautiful thing they get going. Basically the idea of being anything less than perfect for her is so sad and horrible due to how fucked her life was that it drives the already caretaking Mike into overdrive to make her happy. Not at the cost of him still being an individual person, mind you. But that's the vibe. Also let me just say, all the self-sacrificing vibes and obsession and desperation can become toxic under certain circumstances and that is absolutely a feature not a bug. Sorry you don't like watching your faves yell at each other but we are not the same.

Anyway what the fuck was I talking about? AUs? Yeah ok so when translating Mike (AND THE OTHERS...and the others) into other stories there's more flexibility u kno because he's mostly just Some Guy. He really just needs (TO ME) an excuse to be fighting with Eleven (she has to be fighting something with the powers I know you gave her). He shouldn't be directly involved with whatever gave her the powers but he should generally know of and be somewhat affected by it. Or become aware of it/involved with it over time. Like in the show. You get it. Honestly his only real consistent character traits are being kinda moody and being the leader of the party in whatever vague or not way. And being intelligent. Like he has to be leader for a reason. I guess that's a decent base for a character right there.

oh right side note: you have to do something fun with her name. like she was basically branded Eleven by the freak that gave her the powers so u gotta take that energy and translate it into another branded name that has el in it because she needs to get the nickname ofc. unless its a cyberpunk au in which case Eleven is a pretty normal name and she can just go by that lmao.

So the point ig is Jane and Mike break up when they go away to different colleges and don't talk to each other again until their next high school reunion, while Mike and Eleven are...well you should know by now.

casting them as siblings was the choice ever i need the s5 press with these two together there’s not enough

max doesn't have a bad dynamic on the show. lucas? believable teenage romance and somehow still smth so profound and tender. cutest & funniest. facilitate growth in each other and look at each other with those big eyes... dustin? better off as friends done right. no duo funnier. mike? two cats hissing at each other. foils due to their similarities. they get the same haircut at least once in their lives. billy? devastating exploration of the vicious cycle of abuse and grief that blooms, still, after everything. el? pov you're like the only female peer around and you have some Opinions and you're immediately ready to support whatever move she makes but also you're a teenager not a therapist so you do the best you can to be a friend, to help her be her own person. the abiding bond you develop along the way is probably just collateral. steve? there is no one easier to steamroll than some only child who's stuck with you. nancy? teaches felonies, won't stop until you're safe but understands more than anyone the need to put yourself in harm's way to say the buck stops with me.

can just put that girl in a room with any other character and there will be something so compelling about it.

Millie Bobby Brown playing badass characters whose names begin with "E"! STRANGER THINGS (2016- ) ENOLA HOLMES (2020) DAMSEL (2024)

Actually I won’t explain it because this response is already perfect

Literally all El actually needs is to start leaning on her newfound robust support system. That's her fucking character arc. Although, not like we don't all know what her "needing independence" actually means.

Also literally Mike isn’t conforming to shit lmao his whole thing is being a huge obvious nerd out of spite. Like if he was actually gay he’d be so obnoxious about it fr

“Mike and El need to fix their relationship problems in s5 if they’re going to have any shot of staying together :////” Literally what relationship problems. They don’t have any relationship problems. The only thing they have are internal and external conflicts that prevent them from accepting the perfect thing they already have because they’re major characters in a story and stories need conflict to be interesting. If you wanna count the “love” thing I fuckin guess (like I fuckin GUESS) but guess what, we’re already over that shit. Genuinely someone argue with me on this bc the only conflicts I see them ever having are from self-sabotaging due to being neck deep in Mental Illness (we’re already matured past doing s3 shit again). Like name something that makes them incompatible actually. I’ll wait. Anyone who thinks there’s a chance in hell they break up in s5 go watch the ending of s2 and let me know if u still think that fr

Scalding, unnecessary take that I'm going to use as an excuse to yap about my hyperfixation characters more than anything, but El's character is actually impossible to stick into coffee shop fanfiction No Supernatural Shit AUs. That's Jane you're writing about. Jane and El are not the same person. At all. And like, Jane is interesting to think about, don't get me wrong. I have thought about Jane. I love Jane. She's adorable and vaguely autistic. But Jane != Eleven.

Eleven is the way she is almost entirely because of her experience/trauma of growing up in the lab and having supernatural murder powers. Her main characters traits are being a self-sacrificing hero and not being sure who she is due to the fact she grew up in an isolated sterile inhuman environment. Unless you're directly translating those things into something unsupernatural (like growing up in a fucked up cult or something and like fighting her way out and now she'll fight to protect other people from similar experiences or something idk) you're writing about Jane the normal gorl who got to grow up with a normal personality in a normal world. And like, you can do that. It's fine it's fandom do whatever u want. But personally, the first thing I come up with when I birth an AU is what crazy powers and fucked up backstory we give Eleven here. Also how do we make her and everyone else really fucking cool but that...might be beside the point idk.

The powers have to basically ruin or have had ruined her life at one point. They have to be a curse that she either reclaims or gets rid of at the end. If she isn't tortured she isn't Eleven Stranger Things lmao

And then yeah yeah my next step is to figure out how Mike AND THE OTHERS OK but mostly Mike get involved in this. Which brings me to my next point: Jane and Mike have no real reason to talk to each other. Mike x Jane is just Normal Gorl x Normal Boy which is like, fine sure if that's what you want, but also you kinda just erased everything interesting about their dynamic. You wanna know what makes El and Mike's relationship so compelling? Objectively? I'm objectively right about everything I'm about to say here? Ok their dynamic is this: Eleven is the most important person in the world, and Mike is the only boy who will ever love her. And yeah that second one sounds really sad but 1. yeah it kinda is :) 2. its not really true that's just what El thinks which is like a major theme for her character TO ME, her underestimating how 'normal' she is esp in her later years 3. it also is kinda true because he's the only boy romantically interested in her who actually understands and experienced all the supernatural/lab trauma bullshit and is actively fighting beside her through the plot of the show, and 4. he's literally perfect and also the only boy she'll ever love and need so it all works out.

And to explain the first one, I mean, you know she's saved the world twice right? She kinda literally is the most important person in the world considering its up to her to stop the apocalypse probably in the end? But its not the being important exactly that makes Mike love her ok, that's more of a meta character thing. Like she doesn't have to literally be the key to saving the world and the most powerful being in the universe. Its more that she has to have something really special about her that draws Mike specifically to her and binds him to her permanently and inseparably and he belongs to her forever and ever and they die in each other's arms. Like she deserves. In canon I imagine objectively and correctly that it went like this: Mike is a natural outcast collector and protector due to his pervasive unconscious need to be needed and his fear of losing the few people who like him, who meets the ultimate outcast girl who literally has nothing and needs him in a very real way, and this gives him an excuse to just pour his entire self into her, fulfilling one of his deepest interpersonal needs. The best part is that she's super selfless and amazing and she loves him the same right back so its actually a beautiful thing they get going. Basically the idea of being anything less than perfect for her is so sad and horrible due to how fucked her life was that it drives the already caretaking Mike into overdrive to make her happy. Not at the cost of him still being an individual person, mind you. But that's the vibe. Also let me just say, all the self-sacrificing vibes and obsession and desperation can become toxic under certain circumstances and that is absolutely a feature not a bug. Sorry you don't like watching your faves yell at each other but we are not the same.

Anyway what the fuck was I talking about? AUs? Yeah ok so when translating Mike (AND THE OTHERS...and the others) into other stories there's more flexibility u kno because he's mostly just Some Guy. He really just needs (TO ME) an excuse to be fighting with Eleven (she has to be fighting something with the powers I know you gave her). He shouldn't be directly involved with whatever gave her the powers but he should generally know of and be somewhat affected by it. Or become aware of it/involved with it over time. Like in the show. You get it. Honestly his only real consistent character traits are being kinda moody and being the leader of the party in whatever vague or not way. And being intelligent. Like he has to be leader for a reason. I guess that's a decent base for a character right there.

oh right side note: you have to do something fun with her name. like she was basically branded Eleven by the freak that gave her the powers so u gotta take that energy and translate it into another branded name that has el in it because she needs to get the nickname ofc. unless its a cyberpunk au in which case Eleven is a pretty normal name and she can just go by that lmao.

So the point ig is Jane and Mike break up when they go away to different colleges and don't talk to each other again until their next high school reunion, while Mike and Eleven are...well you should know by now.

The return to form we've been waiting for <3

#an iconic entrance from two bad bitches #who are about to fuck shit up STRANGER THINGS (2016- ) | DAMSEL (2024)

obsessed w el being girly and basic. with her boyfriend who sneaks thru her window like they’re in a romcom and listening to madonna while flipping through magazines and having her best friend paint her nails at their sleepover and wearing clothes from the mall or adding her own girly twist on hand me downs. getting to enjoy things every other girl does. being like “everyone else” after not getting to be anyone at all for years. 

Listen, you seem chill so I’m going to say this as nicely as possible, but you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the narrative of this show. And while I could explain the basics of western pop tv storytelling to you, and I will if you really want me to, the fact that you believe any of this in the first place tells me that it would probably just be a waste of both of our time so I’ll just say, I hope you’re having fun over there 👍

“Mike and El need to fix their relationship problems in s5 if they’re going to have any shot of staying together :////” Literally what relationship problems. They don’t have any relationship problems. The only thing they have are internal and external conflicts that prevent them from accepting the perfect thing they already have because they’re major characters in a story and stories need conflict to be interesting. If you wanna count the “love” thing I fuckin guess (like I fuckin GUESS) but guess what, we’re already over that shit. Genuinely someone argue with me on this bc the only conflicts I see them ever having are from self-sabotaging due to being neck deep in Mental Illness (we’re already matured past doing s3 shit again). Like name something that makes them incompatible actually. I’ll wait. Anyone who thinks there’s a chance in hell they break up in s5 go watch the ending of s2 and let me know if u still think that fr

Ok hear me out

*INHALES*

DO YOU GUYS EVER THINK OF MILEVEN ATTENDING PROM AND JUST DIE? BECAUSE I DO

El really is incredibly perceptive. She has very conspicuous (and understandable) gaps in her knowledge and understanding, but she's so sharp--she's very emotionally attuned, reads people very well, and very quickly incorporates new knowledge. She's such a bright, emotionally aware kid.

Also the gag with the spaceship is still hilarious. (Wouldn't levitate it for Dustin, but idly levitates it in the next scene just because.)