I'm so upset rn. He could have had a future and gone to college and raised the kids and fought vecna and given Mike the "you are gay" talk and kissed Steve and im crying again

that entire scene of billy being taken can literally be interpreted as a metaphorical rape scene. he's dragged downstairs by his ankles to an abandoned basement in the middle of nowhere while he's thrashing and screaming for help. the mindflayer holds him down and enters his mouth while he continues to struggle. when he's free, he runs away to his car and drives off to the nearest phone booth because he's terrified that it's following him.

he doesn't know what to tell the 911 operator, would they believe him? it all seemed very unrealistic. he has flashbacks and starts dissociating, replaying the scene in his mind, specifically the scene when it enters his mouth. and then he's faced with himself. the other billy represents the side of him that feeds his degrading emotions.

this is literally a metaphorical rape scene i don't know what to tell y'all. the way will's kidnapping can also be interpreted as a child predator holding a child hostage and violating him. joyce's initial thoughts must've been that her son was kidnapped by a sick person. and the fact that they found will unconscious with something forced in his mouth?? metaphorical assault scene.

and billy's shower scene? the black veins represent the phantom touches and pain left behind by his rapist. he's showering because he wants it off him but it's not going away. he's starting to dissociate and the memories are hitting him full force again.

do the duffers realize this connection? the show would be outstanding if they acknowledged the general theme of vecna/the MF representing an abuser/rapist who specifically targets troubled children because they're easier to manipulate.

are you seeing this shit, applejack

do you guys think that in s2 when will said “let me go” it wasn’t just the mind flayer trying to escape, but maybe also teeny tiny twelve year old will begging for his family to let him go, as in die, but then mike wheeler said “it was the best thing i’d ever done” about making friends with him? anyway.

oh god oh fuck oh dear (i thought abt max for more than a second and now i'm crying real tears)

Give me a Steve who's actually really good at statistics and just doesn't think anything of it. He's been learning and memorizing game scores and player stats for multiple different sports teams for years. He just doesn't think anything of it because "What, like it's hard?"

i dunno why i expected the duffer brothers to write a good story involving queer people or poc because their biggest issue was only ever being nerds

‘From Mike, from Mike, from Mike, from Mike, FROM, FROM, FROM!” 4x03

“From El” 4x04

Will the Wise drawing: a paid actor (recurring role) 4x03 & 4x04

one of my main unrealistic hopes is that season 5 is a little …smaller? a little more focused? and get rid of the Russian plot line? if vecna is destroying Hawkins and potentially the word and with the cast so huge maybe not but the initial magic of stranger things was the smallness of the town and the intensity of the few people against a mysterious evil. and I don’t care about the Russians idk. just me maybe. just set it in Hawkins ! not 4 different places mayhaps duffer brothers. also make byler canon and bring max back from her coma ❤️ AND also maybe treat the poc of the cast better …? like don’t make Lucas and Erica the punchbags like they did last time….Just A Thought

Can we... maybe stop hating on Eddie so hard? I get the fans for his character are passionate but just because you may not understand the love or think Argyle deserves it more (they can both be loved, okay?) or something doesn't mean that we should hate on Eddie this much, even going so far as to almost call Eddie fans bad stranger things fans or calling Eddie a bad character.

Eddie is literally the only character in the ENTIRETY of Stranger Things that is an outcast that also inspired the audience to see him as one right off the bat. All the other characters, we're encouraged to find reasons to like them immediately. Eddie though? He's loud, he's weird, he's jumping on the table and getting in girl's faces as they walk by minding their own business. He seems stubborn and a bit scary (evidenced by how worried Mike and Dustin were to ask him to move the DnD game). He was an outcast and for most of episode 1, the show asks you to look at him as one.

Until Crissy. We see he's actually kind. He's not that scary. He's sweet with her, and understanding. He's genuinely funny. You start to notice that his smile isn't fake, his eyes glint with this bright spark of life.

And then we watch him go through this season so incredibly scared. He's on the run for murder, and he's trying to understand all this supernatural stuff that's so much weirder than he is.

He was the only stranger things character NOT fighting to be himself. He already was himself, and at the first mistake, the first time he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, the world chased him down for it. He deserved to live, to get to be himself until he was old. And that's heartbreaking that he didn't get to.

I don't know how to explain to you guys the importance of EDDIE saying the line "Conformity's killing the kids". The one character in the whole show who isn't comforming. I don't know how to explain to you the layers of meaning in the fact that he's the only character who died this season. And I don't know how to explain to you the meaning of Eddie acting as a foil for Jason, who Lucas goes on to describe as "normal's a raging phycopath." Jason, the normal raging phycopath. Eddie, the weird and kind outcast.

Like, look, Eddie was really important. He was an incredible character. He was written with such love and care. He mattered to people. He mattered to the characters. What a complete insult to the story we all witnessed to say that Eddie barely had screentime, to say that he only died to "further Dustin's arc", that he didn't matter. To say that Argyle deserves that attention instead of Eddie. Argyle has his meaning too, as does every character here and we can love them for what they bring together.

Surely we can love these characters for the good they bring to our lives on an individual basis and encourage others to take whatever good from this show that they can, because there's a LOT of good here.

Because look, Eddie is one of those rare characters who mattered more to us the viewers than the other characters. WE needed to see him die. WE needed to learn from that. I get Eddie fans wanting him back, I wish he had lived too. I get why he won't return, but I won't begrudge them that feeling of wanting him back.

I get that crushing feeling of watching Eddie die and realizing just for far conformity was willing to go to kill the kids.

And all of that, absolutely ALL of it, would be completely gone and absent from this show without him.

no because s4 could’ve actually been good if it was like still about billy and they were trying to rescue him from the upside down and they still could’ve had the whole vecna thing happen because max would’ve been fucked up about billy dying but then it’s like… dum dum dum he didn’t! like why did they not do that why did they fuck it up so bad i hate it here i hate the duffers i hate stranger things so much

I blame Netflix for posting “who’s your favorite couple.” And proceeded to add pictures of Steve and Eddie.

You caused my delusions and now I can’t go back 🫠

just a lil thought I need to get out of my system: love how the byler shippers in general have such a good understanding of the show, its themes, in which direction it should go. but also I worry that they understand the show much better than its actual creators. i'm worried that the hype will eventually lead to a lot of disappointment. I say so as a former believer in tjlc 🤡

Anyways

Will and Mike are in love

Steve and Eddie are in love

Nancy and Robin are in love

looking back on my posts about volume two im now realizing how high my hopes were. like wow even my worst case scenarios weren't even that bad compared to the absolute shit show we ended up getting. 

ST4 VOL 2 SPOILERS (haven't watched the episodes, just reading the tags and I'm fuming)

what was the point of mike and will's awkward hug, what was the point of the rink o mania fight, what was the point of emotional tender music playing while will and mike have a heart to heart Twice, what was the point of mike not being able to say I love you to El, what was the point of blue meets yellow in the west, what was the point of all the byler marketing, what was the point of "mike is just trying to act as normal as possible, he might be into some new things", what was the point of "they've been building byler up for a while now so definitely start shipping it", what was the point of "will's love for mike is beautiful and they come to a mutual understanding", what- what- WHAT-

Ngl I still have the TEENSIEST CRUMB of hope left because it's possible mike might learn El didn't commission the painting in s5 and he'll realize all of the things will said were his feelings and not hers, but honestly I'm tired of giving credit to the duffers for anything. will is my favorite character and my heart is BROKEN for him but I'm actually more mad at how they've obliterated Mike's character. even outside of byler, milkvan has been going in circles and the last thing they need as characters is to get back together AGAIN. even if byler wasn't gonna have any semblance of confirmation all I wanted was milkvan mutual breakup and like at least a proper hug between will and mike, that's IT. nah instead will gets to suffer for the 1000th time and mike is just a terrible person. I was enjoying season 4 immensely because of max and the byler buildup (also Eddie but from what I hear that doesn't go so well either) but now it's just imploded on itself. thanks suffer brothers, I hate it.