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lesbicosmos · 2 years

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Music In Stranger Things

and how it is used to queer-code Mike and Will

Music is integral to what makes the show so great and both the soundtrack and original score is used throughout every season to sometimes parallel scenes or imply things about the characters or plot

OST

The First I love You

This piece first plays in season 3 episode 7, during the scene in the bathroom where Steve confesses his feelings for Robin and she turns him down and comes out to him as a lesbian (it doesn't start til after the coming out scene, when Steve starts joking around and making fun of Tammy)

The same piece plays again in the final episode of the season, when the Byers and El are leaving Hawkins to move to California and El talks to Mike, saying she loves him and kissing him. Mike says nothing in response and stands still, eyes open the whole time and has a confused expression on his face afterwards.

This could imply a parallel between the two scenes; that Mike, like Robin, is gay and can’t love El back the way she wants him to. This is even represented in the title, with ‘love’ being the only word not capitalised to show that it is a different type of love.

In the closet (at Rink O Mania)

I don’t think much more evidence is necessary after this piece, it's literally titled ‘In the closet’. This piece plays during the scene where Will and Mike argue in Rink-O-Mania, after El gets bullied on the rink and Mike is annoyed at Will for not telling him El was being bullied.

While the piece does play into the next scene and the title is literally referring to El hiding from Angela and her friends in a storage closet, it begins during the Mike and Will scene, specifically starting as Mike is talking, implying the double meaning – that Mike is closeted and hiding from his own feelings.

Being Different & You’re The Heart

The piece that plays in the van scene is called ‘Being Different’ (referencing Will’s line about how when you’re different, sometimes you feel like a mistake).

‘You’re the Heart’ plays in the scene with Mike’s monologue to El in the final episode. I find it interesting that this specific piece is titled ‘You’re the Heart’, a Will line, rather than something Mike says to El in the scene, like ‘I Love You’ or ‘You’re My Superhero’. This kind of leads us to think Mike wasn’t being entirely honest with El and is actually just repeating a lot of what Will said the episode prior to cover up the truth.

What’s interesting about these two pieces is they both feel like they’re missing something, much like how the scenes themselves aren’t entirely what they seem (Will talking about himself but not saying it and instead lying that it’s about El, and Mike talking about how much he loves El, covering up the fact he feels their relationship is falling apart and that his feelings may not be genuine).

I first found this next part on tiktok (@causeineedu) and I think it’s such an interesting detail. If you play both tracks, and scenes, so that they end at the same time, the music actually completes itself and is really beautiful. It would be really cool if both pieces together was a new piece in s5 used in a significant byler scene. The scenes the tracks are used in also parallel to show the truth of Mike’s feelings when synced up, the tiktok linked goes into a lot more detail on that and it's really cool so go check it out (also that whole account is amazing)

Soundtrack

Heroes – David Bowie (cover by Peter Gabriel)

Probably one of the most recognised songs used in the show, Heroes is a song about two lovers who are under constant fear of death dreaming that they are free, and is very queercoded.

The Peter Gabriel cover has been used twice throughout the show in pivotal moments:

1. Will’s fake body is found in the quarry at the end of 1x03 – this scene is primarily from Mike’s POV and the song is inherently romantic, especially the lyrics that play when he gets home after biking back in tears and hugs his mom:

“And the guns

Shot above our heads

And we kissed

As though nothing could fall

And the shame”

"And the guns shot above our heads” could reference the bullying they face for being gay (Troy and James do mostly bully Will but they also direct it at Mike more than Dustin or Lucas, as if taunting him as well).

“And we kissed as though nothing could fall” could reference the strength of their relationship before Will went missing; they were inseparable, and even if they never kissed beforehand, this line would still represent that.

"And the shame” references both Mike’s internalised homophobia and the stigma around being queer in the 80s, and how neither Mike nor Will would be comfortable admitting their feelings for fear of attack.

2. The second time the song is used it in the final scene of season 3 as El and the Byers move away, after El reads Hoppers letter.

The song is reused to parallel to the first scene, mostly to hint that while everyone believes Hopper is dead, he survived, much like how everyone thought Will was dead in 1x03

While the song doesn't play over the exact scene, Hoppers letter does, the repeated use of the song also brings the direct parallel of Mike returning home and hugging his mom, but he doesn’t cry or let out much emotion this time. I think this is the moment he truly realised how much he loves Will and the internalised homophobia really started to hit and he doesn’t think he can be emotional about Will leaving without 'being caught'.

The lines of Hoppers letter that do play over the hug scene do also reflect how Mike is feeling:

"I don't want things to change. So maybe that's why I came in here - to try to maybe stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were."

Mike wants to go back to when he didn't know about his feelings for Will, because that would have been a lot easier. He doesn't want their friendship to change.

The next bit isn't exactly in the show but...

Mike’s Spotify Playlist

Mike's official playlist, Mike's Bassment Beats, contains a lot of musical hints that Mike might be queer, even from the very first song.

The first song on the playlist is Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat, which was described as a ‘cry for gay liberation’ when it was released in 1984 and was about how many queer men had to flee small towns due to the intolerance and homophobia.

Season 2 of the show was set in 1984 and I think this is when Mike developed a crush on Will, even if he didn’t fully realise it then. He was a lot more protective of him that season, rightfully so after season one, but he was always there right by his side, somewhat separated from people like Dustin and Lucas when it came to Will, implying their relationship was different.

The lyrics:

“Pushed around and kicked

Around, always a lonely boy

You were the one that they’d

Talk about around town as they

Put you down

And as hard as they would try,

They’d hurt to make you cry

But you never cried to them”

These lyrics can actually apply to both Mike and Will quite easily.

“Pushed around and kicked around” represents the bullying they face, mostly Will, from kids at school like Troy and James, and even his own father Lonnie.

"Always a lonely boy" represents them both, they've always been the outcasts, the loners. Mike specifically mentions he was all alone before he met Will in kindergarten.

“You never cried to them” is a very Mike line, representing how after season 2, he started to realise his actual feelings and pushed them down, suppressing his emotions until they got too much and were forced out, like during the rain breakup in 3x03 where he absolutely projects onto will with the "it's not my fault you don't like girls" line.

The 11th song on the playlist is Don’t You Want Me by The Human League and was originally on the playlist with a cover from a ‘Celebrate Gay Pride’ album (Steve also has this song on his playlist but the original album cover so this was very likely intentional). Since, however, it has been changed to the original, perhaps to be more subtle.

One song on the playlist is Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ by Tubeway Army. The lyrics themselves aren't intentionally queercoded but the title and in the context of Mike's character they are. Electricity is mentioned a couple of times in season 2 to allude to a romantic relationship; Steve tells Dustin that once you feel the electricity you know something is going on between two people, and Dustin then tells Lucas he can feel the electricity between him and Max (one of the main couples that have always paralleled Mike and Will).

Some songs on the playlist could link to hiding in the closet, such as Cars by Gary Numan:

“Here in my car

I feel safest of all

I can lock all my doors

It’s the only way to live in cars”

The car represents the closet and how Mike is hiding from his own self and who he really is behind his ‘straight boy’ cover act - the closet is safe for him as it hides him from the reaction of the real world.

Many other songs on the playlist are about running away:

I Ran (So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls

Running in the Night by FM-84 + Ollie Wride

Destination Unknown by Missing Persons

Run Away by International Music System

These could all be metaphors for Mike running away from his own feelings and identity out of fear, or even running from his parents and their reactions, specifically his dad's - Ted has made a couple of homophobic micro-aggressions throughout the seasons, mostly in season 1.

Mike's playlist overall is really interesting as so many of the songs could be linked to his feelings about his sexuality and running away from himself.

The next point is also not entirely in the show itself, but links to a set piece.

Will’s Vecna Song – Theory

Although Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash has been a song associated with him since season 1, I don’t think it would be the song that would save him from Vecna. He probably has a lot of trauma from it as it is what he kept singing when he was stuck in the Upside Down. While it is linked to happy memories and Jonathan distracting him from his parents’ fighting, it has always also been linked to the negativity and trauma in Will’s life.

Instead, I think Will’s Vecna song would be Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure.

For starters, he has a poster for the song on his bedroom wall in season 4 (visible in the first scene he’s in when he’s painting in 4x01) so we know he at least likes it.

He would probably like the song so much as he'd relate to it a lot:

“I try to laugh about it

Cover it all up with lies

I try to laugh about it

Hiding the tears in my eyes

‘Cause boys don’t cry

Boys don’t cry”

These lyrics would specifically fit one particular scene that is key to Will and Mike’s relationship in season 4 – when he admits his feelings to Mike in the back of the van but uses El’s name (“cover it all up with lies”), to help Mike in his struggle with his and El’s relationship. He turns and looks out of the window so Mike can’t see him crying (“hiding the tears in my eyes ‘cause boys don’t cry”)

The song could also link very clearly to Mike’s character too. He is also “covering it all up with lies” as his whole relationship with El is covering up his true feelings for Will, and he also pushes down all his emotions so he doesn’t have to open up to anyone.

Another reason I think this would be the song that would save Will from Vecna is the lyrics have similar ties to his trauma as the lyrics of Running Up that Hill have to Max's. Max relates to Running Up that Hill as she feels guilty about Billy's death and wishes she could go back and rewrite that day. It's the thing that makes her hate herself. The thing that makes Will hate himself the most is his sexuality and his feelings for Mike, which the lyrics would reflect; him knowing he can't open up about how he really feels out of fear of both rejection and being attacked, as well as the thought of truly losing Mike, even as his friend.

There are so many more examples of music being used to queercode these two characters and I'll add onto this if I find any more but this post is really long anyway so ill stop 😭

#well that took a while #gonna turn this blog into an analysis blog aswell #i keep rambling about stuff #and i think my family are starting to get annoyed #byler #byler analysis #stranger things #stranger things analysis #stranger things music #stranger things music analysis #stranger things score #mike wheeler is gay #mike wheeler i know what you are #byler endgame #mike wheeler #will byers #heroes by david bowie #boys don't cry by the cure

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snailsnaps · 23 days

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Couple spare sketches I didn't post with the others

I'd like to think that you need some time to get adjusted to your new um - body. And if it were anything like VR, we're talking about some real ahh motion sickness and balance issues, at least until you get acustomed to the feel.

But Kinito would be so happy to have you there with him!!

#does anybody care about these rambles? cuz i'll keep yapping anyways #i need this to heal #also gosh i have lore #to heal my mind and soul #KinitoPET #sketches #snailsnaps #hellopaint stuff #kinito #kinito the axolotl #kinito my beloved #kinitopet fanart #kinito pet #kinito fanart #kinitopet you #kinito au #kinitopet au #HELP ME

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yea-baiyi · 1 year

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i keep thinking about the odyssey i am THINKING about wei wuxian as odysseus. you were dead. its been years since you’ve seen your family. the child you left behind is almost a man. you wear a face they don’t recognise, you sneak in through the back door. the dog gives your identity away. the world knows it’s you when you draw your weapon. the person you love recognises you by the original symbol of your love—a secret that no one else in the world knows about, still, because they kept it safe for all these years. you get the chance to go back and despite everything, you found home waiting for you; he kept your place and raised your son and he was still there waiting for you when you got back. tell me o muse, about a complicated man i am extremely not okay

#cql #mdzs #wangxian #wwx #lwj #meta stuff #greek mythology #i am not fine i am not sane in the slightest #no idea if i’ve posted something similar to this before #i definitely started my odyssey journey thinking about them but then i got sidetracked with. the actual odyssey #i have been on an absolute greek tragedy bender though so there’s. plenty more to come. but also. HHHHH #the dog thing is so silly but i couldn’t help keeping it in because that is SO funny #this is soooo self indulgent i am sorry for subjecting u all to this #thank u to helendamnation my beloved for listening to all my rambling this weekend about this #jesus. home waited. the odyssey is about many things but it is about a man coming home.#and despite everything. he gets to come home. and he gets it because his home waited for him.#despite him being dead. despite the gods. despite the suitors and the pressure and the doubt.#in most stories home moves on without you but this time. this one time. home waited.#homeric hyperfixation haze

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gayvampyr · 2 years

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i actually hate when people interject with “the patriarchy hurts men too!” in every discussion about womens systemic oppression. like yeah, it does. but you don’t need to bring it up every single time we discuss misogyny as a reason people should *really* care about dismantling the patriarchy. like womens suffering isn’t enough of an issue, it has to affect men before it’s actually taken seriously. im just sick of having to cater to mens victim complex and validate their feelings of oppression before any real work can be done. isn’t it enough that we’re suffering? cuz it doesn’t feel like it is

#idk im rambly but i’ve been thinking this for a while now and honestly unless you’re talking about mens oppression on the intersection of an #alternate axis like race or sexuality #i don’t want to hear about it #‘men are oppressed because of toxic masculinity and gender roles!’ yeah forgive me if im not exactly weeping with sympathy for my oppressor #because the system that they use to oppress me is what keeps them in power but also tangentially hurts them #like the ways male privilege affects women vs men are on completely different planes #not at all comparable #text post #misogyny #feminism and stuff #top posts

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weirdest-lights · 3 days

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It's my own opinion but the more I watch the new season of the Bad Batch the more I feel like Tech's death was just cheap.

In a series focused on the Bad Batch, we saw more Rampart and Emerie than Echo . An integral member since the beginning.

So what if killing of Tech was just another quick way to get rid of a character they wouldn't have had time to write a role for? I mean, they barely talk about him and we never get to see anyone's reaction to his death.

It just feels like killing him was a way to get rid of a character easily to focus on others or just to make more drama in the new season.

"Oh Tech isn't here to do that so I guess we're going to have to risk our lives for this things."

"If Tech were here it would be easier but since he's not, guess we're going to have to take the long road !"

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carnivalcarriondiscarded · 9 months

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ok I won’t lie i originally followed you for your wh stuff and that’s ofc super awesome but also? your DRAGON ART?!?!! OMG

as someone who’s first hyperfixtation probably ever was wings of fire I AM IN LOVE WITH THE WAY U DRAW DRAGONS. ESP ALL THE DIFFERENT FEATURES WHICH MAKE EACH TRIBE DISTINCT AND JUST. UGH. ITS SO GOOD <333 10 Y.O. ME WOULD HAVE EXPLODED PROBABLY

ok enough caps lock I just wanted to let u know that it’s all rlly cool and have a good day 👍

AW DUDE! RAD AS HELL thank you so much <3!!! here's a lil Nightwing sketchy for you, a fellow WoF Was My First Big Interest badge carrier <3

#believe me whenever i scribble wof im like 'younger me would be so fucking happy rn'#i mean i still like wof just... not nearly as much as i used to yk?#which! you specifically probably do know! 🤝#scribble salad #rambles from the bog #dragons #wof #wings of fire #i keep meaning to draw more dragons - mine and like. wof n stuff #but puppet brain persists!!!#which i know next to nobody is complaining about lol #but still! dragons are Important to me always and forever <3 #and i wish my motivation would let me indulge in my first love <3

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crescentfool · 18 days

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i've been doing a bunch of tartarus runs in reload lately, and it got me thinking about how i miss certain ways FES's clunky gameplay can characterize minato… (ramble about the great clock mechanic + leveling up party members in reload vs fes under the cut)

when i got to yabbashah block in tartarus (block 3), i remember commending the developers for adding the great clock mechanic. it's a much more convenient way to keep party members at the protagonist's level- so when you think about p3 from the perspective of trying to make it easier for people to play, the mechanic succeeds in this respect.

but now that i'm in adamah block, and that i've done lots of my once-a-month tartarus runs… i think that i got a little too dependent on it, and the way that i played through reload feels like a vastly different experience from how i played FES.

in reload, my party's levels are very lopsided. minato, yukari, akihiko, mitsuru, and fuuka are all level 90+, meanwhile junpei and aigis are at level 79, and then… poor ken and koromaru are at 71 and 64 respectively. (i never got to have a great clock for them…)

meanwhile, in FES, my party's levels were much more evenly distributed and were at least level 90. i did all of this manually for every monthly tartarus run because i enjoyed having options available for the taratarus guardians and monthly operations.

with how i perceive minato, i feel that the way i played FES feels more in-line with his character than me dawdling around waiting for the great clocks in reload.

FES's gameplay loop left me with the very strong impression that minato has to work twice as hard as everyone else in SEES does. it makes sense because, yeah, he's the leader, but something about having minato run through tartarus multiple times with different groups of people just to make sure that they are adequately prepared speaks volumes about his character, to me.

and while the tired mechanic is present in reload to some degree, most notably with allowing you to freely raise your courage stat when you visit edogawa after school… the tiredness system doesn't hit the same way that FES does, i think.

the way your party members in FES will call it quits when they return to the entrance floor at tartarus when they're tired, versus minato, in spite of all his tiredness and sickness, still pushes through tartarus because it's his responsibility…. idk!!! i miss that! i feel like this really hammers home the difference between minato and the rest of SEES, how minato doesn't really see himself as a human with needs worth respecting as long as he's useful to someone.

i don't think that tartarus being tedious (in FES especially) is not what most people would describe as fun, and i can respect people thinking it's a slog. but, regardless of how it feels to play, it doesn't change that FES's gameplay loop is a fundamental building block in how i perceive minato…

of course, i do recognize that you can just opt to NOT use the great clock in reload (and it's great when players are offered the choice to not partake in mechanics)! i definitely think that if someone really wanted to, they could manually level up party members, but i do feel that kind of playstyle isn't necessarily "incentivized" to the type of people who are into playing games for Having a Good Time. it's kind of like… "why would you do that when there's a much more convenient option available to you."

in any case! despite my woes, i do want to emphasize that i'm glad that reload has a much more smoother gameplay loop than the original P3 did, because it does make the game more accessible to people. having played both FES and reload, it feels very strongly apparent to me how the core gameplay formula of persona has really been refined in the past 18 years (to think og p3 was 2006 and reload is 2024.. time flies!). and reload has made revisiting a story that i love so dearly much, much easier because the gameplay just bops!

at the same time, due to my "i miss characterization informed by weird and dated FES gameplay quirks" woes, i still think that playing FES is worthwhile. (really, i feel this way about all iterations of p3! i think it's worthwhile to see what each version and side media has to say even if it doesn't Land™ for you.) but i also understand why people wouldn't want to play it, so i will keep writing posts about things i liked from FES's gameplay because i'm still very fond of FES (especially in respects to minato. these mechanics are so telling about him!!!) 💪

#lizzy speaks #persona 3 #persona 3 reload #<- specifically mentions of mechanics. no added story content just tartarus talk #minato arisato #today on lizz life: lizz wakes up THINKING about minato for the NTH time and is compelled to write a tumblr post about it #tartarus in reload is excellent looking and fun but i keep thinking about what i liked about how FES characterizes minato so #here i am... LOL... with my 790 or so word ramble... im so normal about the blue boy #i needed to get my feelings out there somewhere i just could not stop thinking about HIM HE IS IN MY BRAIN 24/7 #me playing reload last night like 'minato would not fucking wait for a great clock to make sure that SEES is adequately prepared.'#and yet my sloth brain awaits the great clock... LOL gameplay convenience is not lost on me #i'm stuck in tartarus rn im grinding rubies and stuff trying to get equipment so i can throw hands with elizabeth its going to be fun #im still not done with this game i continue to be haunted by tartarus i fucking love that tower unironically #uh usually id ramble more in tags but. go read my post!! because i like analyzing FES gameplay mechanics!! i am full of passion and love!

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missholoska · 2 months

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today is underswap mh's 7th anniversary today aaaand I have nothing ready for it. I am working on something but it's gonna take at least a good few weeks to finish, and with family health stuff being Very Bad I'm not in the right mental place to do another ask blog event like last year 💔

however I did have a look through the posts from that event to reminisce a little, and in the interest of doing Something today, I'm gonna just reblog a few of my favourite ask responses :'>

(I will also be pinning this post for a day to hopefully prevent anyone from thinking the ask blog event is active, because it is not)

#holoskart rambles #underswap mh rambles #irl stuff is still pretty raw and hectic so hopefully this time next year things will be more settled #and I might be able to actually do something cool again for the next anniversary. we'll see I suppose #I can say I'm excited about the stuff I'm currently working on at least! progress is just very slow but I will keep at it \o/

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