#dustin analysis | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wibble-wobbegong · 1 year

Text

Does Dustin Know Mike is Gay?

Now I know what you’re gonna say; “But Wibble! This goes against everything we know about Mike’s character! He’s supposed to be hiding, why the fuck would he tell Dustin!?” And I get the skepticism. I do. So, I am gently grabbing your hand and asking you to entertain me for a minute. Let’s consider what we know.

Number One

Thus far, Dustin doesn’t play any significant role in Mike’s arc with his sexuality. In fact, he’s the only party member who doesn’t somehow influence the way Mike interacts with his sexuality! How Will and El play into Mike’s arc with his sexuality is obvious. Lucas is Mike’s leader in understanding the Straight Man act in S3 and he’s representative of what Mike has realized he can’t have in S4 — normalcy. Mike can’t try to be normal like Lucas. Whenever Mike needs an example of what he’s supposed to be, whether to imitate or to be angry at, Lucas is where he turns (even though the S4 conflict itself goes beyond any sort of jealousy). Max is an influence by proxy. She’s another example of what Mike is supposed to want (girls) because that’s who Lucas wants.

Dustin, however, never seems to hold any real significance in Mike’s story with his sexuality. Hell, if we’re being really honest, Dustin hasn’t been much of a player at all in Mike’s story since S1. The one and only time we see Dustin brushing the monstrosity that is that internal conflict, it’s when he’s dragging on Mike and El in S3. You could argue the Phoebe Cates comment as well, but that doesn’t have as much to do with Dustin himself than another example of Mike being disinterested in girls.

This immediately gives Dustin an advantage in this argument. If Dustin doesn’t play a significant role in Mike’s arc with his sexuality, Mike doesn’t have much to fear with coming out to him compared to other characters. It also guarantees that Dustin won’t be heavily encroaching on that part of the story in S5, because it isn’t really relevant to him.

Number Two

Obviously that isn’t enough to say Mike would come out to him, Wibble 🙄. He still wouldn’t want to lose one of his best friends and he doesn’t know whether or not Dustin is okay with gay people!!!

Yes. Sort of. Of course he doesn’t want to lose Dustin, and coming out does risk that. However, may I introduce you to the most openly queer man in Hawkins; one of Dustin’s very good friends; someone Dustin is shown to care about dearly…

Edward Munson!

Eddie is at least somewhat open about his queerness, considering he wears the black bandana in his pocket to school and his whole ‘embrace the freak’ personality. The bandana is code to call out to people outside of his circle, but I have zero doubts that Eddie is open about being queer when he’s with the Hellfire members. Eddie isn’t ashamed of who he is, and the bandana is an active invitation to other people to join him. The bandana doesn’t serve a narrative purpose, seemingly, but that sign that he’s trying to communicate to other queer people that he’s also queer (and available). He doesn’t hide it. The same way he hunts down fellow freaks, he’s calling out to other queers.

Dustin clearly doesn’t care, considering how close he is with Eddie regardless of his blatant queerness. He’s defensive of him when accusations are thrown around about him being a murderer. Friendly reminder that the satanic panic and hunt for the freak is meant to be a metaphor for the AIDs crisis! There’s a reason they specifically mention sodomy in the magazine Eddie reads out of. Sodomy is literally anal sex. The activity most popularly believed to be the cause and spread of AIDs. It’s a pretty blatant metaphor, and Dustin goes out of his way to prove that Eddie isn’t a murderer like everyone claims, that he’s a good person even though he does play DND. There’s a ton of emphasis put on the fact that DND isn’t this horrible, sickening game that everyone believes it is; being gay isn’t a disease and Eddie isn’t a murderer. Having gay sex doesn’t kill people. Eddie engaging in gay sex (hence the black bandana) doesn’t mean he’s spreading AIDs and killing people. He’s not a murderer.

The point is, Eddie is openly queer and Dustin is not only accepting but goes out of his way to protect Eddie.

There’s some incredibly important timing going here. When do Dustin, Lucas, and Mike actually meet Eddie? The start of the school year.

Now, this is important for Mike because this means an openly queer man is approaching him and inviting him to do the very thing he’d just spent all his time doing since the Byers and El moved on July 4th. Mike hasn’t been together with El since before Starcourt. He’s been mourning the loss of his best friend for months by doing the very things he associates with being gay and in love with Will. He’s taken small steps forward in accepting himself, but having someone like Eddie be proud of himself and his identity was critical in his journey with queerness. Meeting Eddie at this point, where he’s been forced to face the fact that he can’t change the way he feels about boys, about Will, and has been broken up with El for months with no reason to assume they’re gonna get back together creates a golden opportunity for Mike to start exploring himself in a space without having to worry. Eddie is there for him.

At the same time, Eddie becomes the first openly queer person Dustin has ever met. Mike watches Dustin accept Eddie and look up to him just like he does. Dustin has a great relationship with Eddie and, as I already said, doesn’t just accept him but embraces him too. Dustin shows that he doesn’t just tolerate queerness but actively defends it.

Where Lucas doesn’t have a very good relationship with Eddie and is trying very hard to be normal, Dustin develops a great relationship with Eddie and doesn’t show anything less than full support. We can assume that this support we see in S4 doesn’t just occur then, considering the satanic panic is an ongoing issue we see picking up at the end of S3. That’s not to say Lucas is homophobic by any means (his acceptance is actually gonna be incredibly important to Mike’s arc in S5), as his motives are completely unrelated to Eddie’s queerness, but that Mike can’t have complete faith that he won’t lose Lucas more than he already has if he tells him. Telling Dustin, on the other hand, is something he knows isn’t dangerous.

Dustin having the relationship he does with Eddie shows Mike that he’s safe. Mike realizes he has a friend who knows Will who he can talk to without fear of losing him or of him being disgusted. Eddie can guide Mike through his queerness, but he doesn’t know Will. Dustin knows Will.

Number Three

That last thought brings me to point three; Dustin seems to be aware of Mike’s troubles with Will l specifically.

We’ve already established that Dustin is a safe person for Mike to talk to and that he’s the only safe person Mike knows who also knows Will. He’s one of Mike’s best friends. The possibility of Dustin knowing about Mike’s communication problem with Will is confirmed with his line about Mike’s whining, and we know that Mike doesn’t use the phone to talk to El. The choice to have Dustin be the one to give out this information is especially odd, considering Nancy is there and if there were problems with the phone she would know better than Dustin, since her and Jonathan have been staying in touch somehow. She could’ve been the one to point it out, but they have Dustin do it. They make a point out of Dustin having to deal with Mike’s whining.

I implore you to remember the last time we saw Mike whine. Like, literally whining.

Peak whiny Mike.

Again, we have mlvn put up against and losing to byler through this parallel. The last time Mine was being whiny, it was because he didn’t know he was allowed to call her first (or didn’t want to) and his partner in crime was Lucas, his exemplar of normalcy. Now, we have Mike being whiny because he literally cannot reach Will because the phone is busy. Mike is reaching out completely on his own and now he goes and whines to Dustin about it. It’s meant to be a romantic parallel just like the breakup vs the rain fight where we see how obvious it is that Mike will fight harder to keep Will in his life. I can’t imagine a scenario where Mike would be comfortable complaining so much to Dustin about it if he hasn’t told him. Reminder that, according to Lucas on the Line, Dustin does know Mike keeps in contact with El through letters. Also, Dustin’s not stupid. He knows they can’t risk exposing El to the government via phone call.

But all that goes to show the Dustin might just be aware of Mike’s feelings for Will. He finally has his place in this incredibly important part of Mike’s story without interfering with the other important people involved in this storyline, as he won’t out Mike to anyone. He can be Mike’s taste of normalcy in the sense that he doesn’t have to hide who he is around Dustin. I’m not saying they have these deep, inspirational conversations but that Mike has someone who won’t treat him differently if he wants to whine over Will.

#im not saying it’s 100% certain or anything im just saying no one should be all that surprised if it turns out dustin already knows #like the pieces are there if the duffers choose to use them #that storyline is laid out if they choose to go that direction #this is more conversational than analytical i think #idk #don’t take this too seriously. it’s just good for thought #*food #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #mike analysis #dustin analysis #never thought I’d see the day where i felt the need to analyze him #this is honestly a little rushed. my bad i just needed it out of my head (drafts)

85 notes · View notes

steddielations · 2 years

Text

file this under tweets that make me cry myself to sleep

#they are truly a little family how could st break them up #steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #mp #ph #dustin henderson #steveddie #henderdads #eddie x steve #stranger things #joseph quinn #joe keery #gaten mazzarato #character analysis

10K notes · View notes

loveinhawkins · 25 days

Text

picturing Eddie first meeting Dustin and thinking yeah, he knows how this goes: he’ll be a larger than life, comical figure in this kid’s life for, like, not even a year before he leaves Hawkins High in the dust.

And sure, Dustin is, like, ridiculously endearing even when he’s being a cocky little shit in campaigns, and that suits Eddie just fine, ‘cause he can be a cocky little shit at the best of times, downright obnoxious really, he thinks—a part of him’s never outgrown the juvenile, no matter how many times he repeats senior year.

Plus Dustin is crazily good at solving riddles, so Eddie’s remaining months leading Hellfire are definitely gonna be a fun challenge.

Then March comes.

And Eddie’s shaking apart in a boathouse, seeing impossible, terrible things on a loop in his head, Chrissy, Chrissy, God no, please, and Dustin’s there, with a wisdom far beyond his years, calmly leading him out of the dark.

Eddie half expects it to be a trick, but no. Dustin Henderson believes him.

You don’t know me, Eddie wants to say.

But there’s a constant defiance in Dustin’s expression, even when he’s clearly trying to keep things light and breezy, there’s nothing to worry about! Like he’s just daring for Eddie to contradict him.

There’s something assured in how the kid does things, Eddie thinks. He can see how the years of all this shit have shaped him, have him flitting between maturity and earnestness: something born from a childhood that’s not been lost, just altered.

He watches Dustin walk with Steve Harrington in the woods—can read the shared history and fondness hidden in between layers of snark; they’re family, he knows that without a doubt.

What trips him up is that Dustin keeps looking back, keeps drawing him back into the group with complaints that he’s walking too slow, and his eyebrows are raised meaningfully, like he’s really saying that there’s room for Eddie here, too.

And Eddie doesn’t know how to convey the sudden gratitude he feels closing up his throat—feels too jittery still, too raw to do anything justice.

He keeps close when Dustin tears off through the woods, heart in his mouth as the night darkens, Dustin, can you slow down? Dustin!

He pulls Dustin back from the lake’s edge just in time, then feels Steve’s watchful eyes on him—spots a flicker of approval, like he’s passed some sort of test.

And that feeling only grows the longer he’s around Steve, lying through his teeth in The Upside Down, I don’t even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, and Steve’s giving him this knowing sideways glance, like maybe they’re something of the same; Eddie feels a sudden, unexpected rush of joy at the thought, dancing in and out of Steve’s space, still super jealous as hell, by the way.

“I told you, right?” Dustin says, grinning widely as Steve drives them out of Forest Hills at breakneck speed. “He’s awesome.”

And Eddie feels the fondness of his own smile, feels it right down to his core, because he gets that Dustin’s only being so forthcoming because Steve can’t hear him right now.

Kid worships you, dude. Like, you have no idea.

It hits him then, while roughhousing with Dustin in the grass (a deliberate distraction, trying to make the kids forget about weapons and fire): that he’s never really been the kinda guy who people want to stick around, but now…

Now he’s starting to think that he could be.

Starts to imagine, starts to hope—and that’s huge, something that would’ve seemed impossible mere days ago—as he sees Robin and Nancy laughing at his antics, their weapon-making temporarily forgotten.

They like me, Eddie thinks with wonder, they really like me.

And he wants—sudden and fierce, with all he has—to change the world for them, to make it so Robin Buckley would just be spending spring break watching arty films, dreaming of Paris; so Nancy Wheeler would never need to hide guns in her bedroom, would never have to carry an unimaginable grief.

Steve looks over, too—his laugh carries across the field, and Eddie is caught by the warmth in his eyes; even as Dustin manages to playfully tackle him, he’s still thinking of Steve, and maybe, maybe…

The lightness fades as they go over the plan, but not the emotion: Eddie keeps that tucked away, safe, a promise to himself.

“Uh, are you sure about this?” he says in an undertone to Steve, when it’s first revealed that it’s him and Dustin paired up together.

Steve’s eyes are apologetic, “Sorry, man, I’ve tried every—if there was a way to just, like, sit it out, I’d have—”

“No,” Eddie says urgently, “I mean…” And he points at himself before nodding discreetly to where Dustin is—currently talking up a storm with Erica, something about vents that he can’t make sense of.

“Are you sure?” Eddie presses, trying to put all he’s not saying into the question, I can see how much that kid means to you, I’ve known him, like, six months, Harrington, that’s nothing, why, why do you—

Steve shakes his head. A little smile breaks through his concern. “Yeah, of course,” he says, like it’s nothing.

But Eddie can feel the weight of it. A passing of the torch.

And he doesn’t know how to put what he’s feeling into words: that, apart from Wayne, he’s never really allowed people in, never allowed them to matter like this.

As they drive back to the Creel House, as time runs out and nerves build, he tries to show everything he can’t say; he helps Nancy take stock of supplies, offers Robin his shoulder so she can sleep, and he knows that’s not enough, barely scratches the surface, but it’s all he’s got.

He sits in the back of the RV, watches Steve, tense and silent in the driver’s seat, and knows with certainty what his mission is: get Dustin Henderson safely back home.

And no, Eddie doesn’t know how any of this is gonna go.

But he can hope.

He can try.

#the dynamic between them all makes my heart ache. just working through some thoughts ❤️#eddie and dustin #eddie munson fic #henderfam #steve and dustin #eddie and dustin fic #eddie munson analysis #dustin henderson analysis #eddie munson headcanons #eddie munson hcs #steddie #eddie and the party #eddie munson ficlet #eddie and dustin ficlet #implied steddie #pre steddie #eddie munson

583 notes · View notes

thranduel · 1 year

Text

3K notes · View notes

pinkeoni · 11 months

Text

“And yet, you still have a C in Spanish”

The meaning behind this is so obvious I’m kicking myself for not noticing it sooner.

Dustin and Mike are in a friendly battle of “My girlfriend is better than your girlfriend” brought on by Dustin, who wants to brag about his amazing girlfriend.

Mike’s rebuttal is “Well, El is a superhero.”

And yet—

—or what Dustin is really saying, maybe without meaning to, is “You’re girlfriend is a superhero, and yet it’s not enough.”

Sure. C’s are fine. It’ll pass the class. “C’s get degrees” as they say. But it’s not an A.

This is the show telling us through Dustin, in big red letters, that Mike’s relationship with El is not adequate.

It’s funny that both of the classes being discussed here are language classes. The class that Suzie changed the grade for was Latin.

Dustin talks to his devout Mormon girlfriend, is honest about his grade, and she’s willing to cheat for him. As a result, he gets an A in language.

What’s also funny is the fact that the Duzie moment takes place right after we see Mike reading El’s letter. You know, the one full of lies. You know, the ones that Mike has been responding to with “From, Mike.”

As such, Mike get’s a C in language.

#byler #anti mileven #anti milkvan #duzie #stranger things #stranger things analysis #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #suzie bingham

920 notes · View notes

loserharrington · 11 months

Text

eddie is interesting to me because for someone who rejects social norms and is anti-conformist, he is SUPER driven by stereotypes.

we see it mostly in him disliking basketball players despite their other interests (including lucas who is both nerd AND jock), testing erica on her dnd knowledge because she’s young, and thinking nancy was some straight laced goody two shoes (enough that it’s shocking to him that she owns guns). also with steve in the way he had yet to see how much he changed as a person since high school even though he’s long fallen from popularity and dustin evidently talks about how much he looks up to him all the time. (you’d think he’d take dustin’s word for it considering the type of person dustin is.)

it’s almost like he has a black and white way of thinking. despite all of the evidence there that these people can’t be checked into one box, he continues to believe that they can only be one way.

i just think it’s interesting that he makes assumptions about people in the same way they make assumptions about him, but turns around and rants about much he dislikes the fact that people misjudge him and the people like him for their interests.

if he had lived, i could see him going through a self discovery arc (similar to steve’s) and learning that stereotypes aren’t always true and people aren’t what they seem at face value. and i think he believes that he already knows this, but his behaviors tell otherwise.

he already started to see this a little bit when he spoke to chrissy. how he thought that she would be “mean and scary” only to find out she’s sweet and kind. he then finds out steve is actually a “good dude” and not who he expected him to be.

as he meets the rest of the characters and sees how all these different types of people interact with each other in harmony, he might be shocked to learn that he’s not who he thought himself to be either

#stranger things #eddie munson #character analysis #stranger things 4 #nancy wheeler #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #erica sinclair #steve harrington #steddie #hellfire club #chrissy cunningham #platonic hellcheer #☕️

918 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 4 months

Text

I just realized something so sweet and personal about Will's painting.

Their DnD characters don't look like that. We saw him draw them plenty in season 1. Will the Wise has a long beard and Mike's character I think has straight blond hair.

Will didn't just draw their characters per usual, he drew them as their characters. He's drawn Mike's knight character a hundred times. But he's never drawn Mike as a knight. He was understanding that Mike's character is a projection of who he aims to be, like all of them, so he drew MIke as the knight this time. For the first time.

That's what this smile is. Mike has played a hero for years. But he's never been one. He saw a dragon and probably expected his character, overjoyed with more of Will's familiar art, but instead, he was met with a glorious knight in shining armor with black, wavy hair. He was the hero this time. *(you can even see his facial expression change from happy excitement to this broad smile)

In season 1, Mike initiates the search party because of Will's heroics in DnD meaning that he would do it for them. He acknowledges that Will's actions in character are still his own. This is the same. This is Will saying "To play a hero, you have to be one yourself. And you are. I see through your character disguise. I see you. This is just the hero you've always been without the mask."

THAT is why it's different. THAT is why it's so much more personal than all the others, not just the heart, MIKE. THAT is why it hurts so bad (Will too but I'm referring to me/us).

I've said in a previous post that it wasn't about the heart, the heart was kind of for us, it was more-so about the heroism. And that's exactly what I standby. The heart isn't the only new thing about this painting. The hero has never actually been Mike before. And Will responded "Yes it has been. It always has been."

326 notes · View notes

emblazons · 3 months

Text

so I swore I was not going to start speculating off of set images, but given the one's we've gotten of Dustin so far, I cannot help myself (plus it's fun). Still: none of the theories I've seen so far make as much sense to me as this being tied to Dustin's trauma and him having a Vecna Vision/Flashback, which becomes clearer the more you put the details revealed in the images into the context we've been given by S4 + The Duffers.

First, the images I'm referencing (TW: IMAGE SPOILERS):

Separately, these things (the basketball players, Dustin's hellfire fit being the same at both the grave and school + him wearing Eddie's rings + Mike's hair & attire) all feel a bit disparate...until you remember the things both Dustin is trying to cope with (Eddie's death + feeling like an outsider) and the Duffers have said re: Eddie and his effect on the characters (listen if you can, its only 3 min). Why?

Well, because we know for a fact that 1) Dustin and Mike were the ones who felt most aligned with Eddie given their being bullied—

—even though we spent all of S4 building the bond between Dustin and Eddie in particular, because Mike was in California with Will.

Similarly (and while I know it's not primary canon), we get this context from Lucas in Lucas on the Line, which corroborates Dustin's comment about Lucas "making all his sports friends" and feeling deeply betrayed by that fact—

—and even stuff about Mike's appearance "not changing" (pre-hellfire, in the moments he's still in S3/regressive conformist territory +not embracing himself)....something that Eddie talks about in S4 when he comments on the look Mike had when he met him.

(I've also already commented on that Mike's shirt looks a lot like the one El wears post Rink-O-Mania in S4—which plays a lot into the idea of Mike giving El a shirt that represents conformity to him (just like her being his girlfriend does, given he cannot be himself in front of her at all in S4).

Combining all of these things though—Dustin being the only one who is in the Hellfire shirt (while all the other extras look a very "S1 good suburban kid" I/ first day of school), Mike showing up (also looking like his 'conformist' self in contrast), Basketball players being on the scene (the people Dustin felt stole Lucas from him)...combined with him in the same outfit at the grave of the person he felt defended him from those losses and challenges in high school?

It's giving Dustin's grief / worst thoughts thrown back at him 100%.

Given that Eddie, who he lost in an extremely traumatic fashion is the one who said forced conformity (which Mike is showing up dressed as alongside Lucas's basketball friends) killed the kids—

—and now they are facing off with Vecna (and Henry by extension, whose says shit like THIS) on top of asking people to "join him" in his displeasure with the world when he 'takes their souls?'

On top of the fact that we KNOW for a fact there is time fuckery coming for us...and it's likely enough that it's 'now 'canonically 1986 (or near it), which is reminiscent of this moment (likely remembered and traumatizing for Dustin specifically)?

Yeah. Flashback / lead up into Vecna torture is exactly what it gives to me—the things causing the event / the moments that lead into the torture. Especially knowing the scenes shot first (aka now) are generally more SFX complex because they take the most time.

bonus: @magentamee also brought up some great points on this theory here!

bonus bonus: I wrote something on Dustin and standing apart from relationship conformity as early as S3 here and wrote up the relationship he has with nonconformity today, which I think plays into his feelings of alienation / what Vecna might pull him apart from his friends by showing him.

#analysis marie back with a vengance with only 6 pics smh #BUT I HAD TO MAKE THIS. IT WAS PULLING AT ME ON MY DRIVE TO WORK THE SECOND I SAW THE FINN PICS LMAO #st5 spoilers #st5 speculation #eddie munson #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #stranger things #st s5 #my st commentary

142 notes · View notes

nottobehornyonthemain · 1 year

Text

I’m just going to throw my hat into the ring about Steve’s parents because I’m bored. But like, Let’s spice up the level of shitty parenting.

Give me a Mrs. Harrington who’s actually a professional. Steve has said that she’s “super well respected” and, for as much as the fandom likes to play him as a dumbass, you don’t put people whoes only achievement is being a jealous housewife on your résumé, especially when you have another parent with a notable (ostensibly white collar) career.

Give me a Mrs. Harrington who’s a news anchor, or a lawyer. Give me a Mrs. Harrington who worked her ass off to be taken seriously by men for the entire late 50’s and early 60’s. Give me a young, ambitious woman with hazel eyes at a mixer for the company she’s working for in Chicago one night, who caught the eye of the charismatic man with ridiculous fluffy brown hair.

Give me a Mr. Harrington who grew up with a veteran father who never really seemed to care. Give me a little boy waiting, every day, for his dad’s letters, waiting for his father Otis to get back from this horrible war. And then he does, and he’s a hero, and suddenly it’s like nothing his son does is worth his notice. When he’s 15 and gets into his first fight? Otis doesn’t even comment on his bruised face before he walks out the door in the morning. When he gets into college? His mother is the one to hand him the watch his parents allegedly both got him as a graduation present. When he gets a job! A good job, where he has his own office and his name on a plate on his desk, not so much as a card.

Give me a Mr. Harrington who promised himself that, if he ever had a son, he would notice. He would pay attention to his kid’s grades, and what they were doing in school. That he would be proud of whatever college his son got into. That if his kid was ever doing something stupid, drinking, fighting, smoking, he would care. And he would say something.

Give me a Mr. Harrington meeting a beautiful woman in Chicago one night, and somehow, convincing her to come back to Hawkins with him. Give me the big news engagement and the blowout wedding fit for two people with nowhere to go but up.

Give me the Harrington couple buying their house, and planning to wait a few years before they start having children. Give me them having their first child, a son.

Give me a Mrs. Harrington being offered the promotion she’s been working towards for years almost immediately after, and taking it.

Give me a Mr. Harrington who never really thought his wife would keep working when they had children, but being smart enough not to say anything about it. Give me them realizing that, between both of their jobs, plans change, and their son will be their only child.

Give me a Mrs. Harrington who “doesn’t trust” her husband not because he might be cheating on her, but because, for as much as he can charm and schmooze with just about anyone, he has never had anyone tell him that he lacks actual understanding of his business. Give me a Mrs. Harrington seeing a stack of papers her husband brought home last night where the math doesn’t quite add up. Give me the blowout fight over his shady new business partner and the costs they could save if they just… cut a few corners. Give me her struggling to be taken seriously and explain to him that the consequences could be actual jail time and a complete destruction of their lives. Give me him hating that she thinks she knows better than him about his own business.

Give me a Mr. Harrington who keeps his promise to care about what his son is doing. Give me his unnecessary lectures, and comments and micromanagement whenever his son walks in the door.

Give me a Mrs. Harrington who couldn’t care less what her son is doing as long as he’s alive. Give me her bitchy comments that have been her best defense in the professional world for so long rubbing off on her son.

Give me a Steve who’s let it shape him. Who got his brown eyes, and desire to be at the top of the social sphere as soon as possible from his mom. Who got his begrudging tendencies to care while still finding something to complain about from his dad.

Give me a Harrington couple who isn’t absent, exactly. Who have the occasional business trip, but are actually in town when most of this stuff goes down. Give me a house that’s almost always empty, not because no one lives there, but because Mrs. Harrington is out late again tonight because the boss needs to be sure everything is in perfect order for Monday. Because Mr. Harrington absolutely has to close this deal. Because Steve has practice for both swimming and basketball today.

Give me a Steve who craves the domestic because of this. Who doesn’t have big plans or ambitions. Who, at his center, just wants to be able to flop on the couch and watch movies with the people he cares about. Who wants family vacations, and kids, and a big house filled with noise. Give me a Steve who understands that that’s where his love of parties came from.

Give me a Mr. Harrington who watches as his son seems to completely throw away everything he worked so hard to give him. Give me the fights over the beer, and the weed, and the grades. Give me the bombshell that his son didn’t even manage to get into college, and the realization that he needs to learn to be responsible.

Give me a Mr. Harrington who comes home one night to Robin and Dustin eating cereal in his kitchen at midnight. Who doesn’t really know what to say, so he sets down his briefcase and eats a bowl of cereal while asking these children who they are and why they’re in his house. Give me a Mr. Harrington patting his son on the back the next morning and telling he how much he likes the nice girl who can speak every language, and the little boy who can recite the periodic table from memory. Give me a Mr. Harrington who knows he made the right decision when he made his son get a job of his own instead of just working for him.

Give me a Mrs. Harrington who, when Steve informs her in the middle of a conversation that he has a boyfriend, doesn’t look up from the mirror where she’s applying her eyeliner.

Give me a Steve who’s had enough of her not caring and asks her, “really? You don’t have anything to say?”

Give me a Mrs. Harrington icily meeting his eyes in the mirror and saying, “Steven. You’ve been putting egg in your hair once a week since you were twelve and a girl in your class told you it makes it shiny, and you’ve been stealing my hairspray even longer.” Then goes back to lining her eyes.

#stranger things #steve harrington #robin buckley #steve and dustin #platonic stobin #steddie #implied at least #gay steve harrington #Harrington parents #in my head Mrs Harrington is a Lucile Bluth personality in an elle woods career #and Mr Harrington is just standard multi generational baggage man #honestly I’ve thought too much about backstory for everyone. ask me about Nancy’s one day #the sheep ramble analysis

758 notes · View notes

apatheticlexicographer · 1 year

Text

season 1: mike gets his love interest

season 2: lucas gets his love interest

season 3: dustin gets his love interest

season 4: will gets his love interest

season 5: mike gets his love interest...?

the pattern is so obvious, i'm not sure why i didn't consciously notice it before now

#it is surprisingly hard to find m'leven screencaps from s1 #most of them are just gifs of the kiss and i wanted to spare y'all from that #byler #byler prediction #byler proof #byler endgame #stranger things #byler analysis #byler theory #stranger things meta #stranger things analysis #stranger things theory #will byers #mike wheeler #i won't tag lucas and dustin

538 notes · View notes

aemiron-main · 2 years

Text

kept awake by the fact that mike didn’t even TRY and hit the water when he stepped off the cliff at the quarry. like he didn’t even try. he just stepped off the edge. he didn’t even leap or run. he just stood there and finally stepped off, as if he’d been on the edge for awhile, both literally/physically and metaphorically/mentally.

like what was it that Powell and Callahan said about Joyce in season 1? Yknow, the only other person alongside Mike who believed Will was still alive and therefore they’re paralleled to eachother in that way and likely other ways? Oh right, they said:

“Joyce? About one step from falling off the edge.”

“She’s been a few steps for awhile now, hasn’t she?”

Just like Mike. Mike literally at the quarry was one step away from falling off the edge (he STEPPED OFF, FELL OFF, he didn’t jump, just like how Joyce has been a “few steps” from “falling off” the edge), but stood there for a fair while/walked up to it and was literally “a few steps away for awhile” from it. this applies not only physically to Mike but also mentally/emotionally. It took so little to make Mike step off the edge because mentally he’d already been on that edge for awhile, already been a “few steps from the edge.”

like do we really think this specific wording related to Joyce’s grief and depression is just coincidental in how it aligns exactly with Mike’s actions? That they chose to write those lines in that specific way for fun? That they chose to have Mike STEP off the edge instead of jump off because they were in a silly goofy mood? Do you think that they connected Mike’s actions to Joyce’s grief over Will via that quote and then ALSO had mike step off at the EXACT same spot where Will was though to have died all accidentally?? Because the duffers tripped and dropped that subtext in there? NO! It’s deeper than Dustin’s baby teeth for Mike, deeper than the bullies. It’s about grief and loss and depression and Mike’s self-sacrificing but also self-loathing nature and his difficulty with processing loss and strange tendency to both catastrophize AND be good in a crisis. (hint: he’s probably so good in crises BECAUSE of how his brain catastrophizes and goes to the worst case scenario, because it means that he’s more ready for that worst case scenario. but it also leads to him being READY to do ‘worst case scenario’ things like stepping off of a cliff to his death.)

Michael “‘See? Physics!’ in s3” Wheeler very likely knew that he wouldn’t hit the water with the way he ‘jumped’ (key point: he didn’t jump, he stepped off) He Knew. It was never just about the baby teeth.

#stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #st1 #Michael I am protecting you from anything bad ever #sick of people acting like it was Only over dustin’s baby teeth and that mike is Mentally Fine #‘Mike has no setup for suicidality thats will’#first of all it can be BOTH of them and IS both of them but imo just like I talked about with the IH Will is also better at coping with his #suicidality than Mike.#like did we watch the same show?? MIKE is the one who walked off a fucking cliff #quit dismissing his mental health #mike wheeler analysis #st analysis #mike’s mental health #the quarry

1K notes · View notes