im pissed and disgusted by the queerbait so

here is a masterpost on everything that doesnt make sense because byler isnt canon, plot holes that exist because byler isnt canon, all the ways mikes character was ruined by making him straight, AND how it was homophobic. i include explanations and categorize things by color coding! this includes scenes in the show, interviews, and posts from the stranger things team. (note: im not going to include things noah said-explained in tags)

warning, it’s very long because im including EVERYTHING. I found and listed 114 examples here. enjoy—or don’t.

"iF yOu HaVe SeNsOrY iSsUeS fOr NoIsE, hOw cAn YoU LiStEn To LoUd MuSiC oN hEaDpHoNes?"

maybe because its MY music and I can control the volume instead of being tortured?

Mike still has demo imagery even in the epilogue.

But this time they have little eyeballs in the centre. Which is concerning.

Suddenly remembered "Jonathan helps Will get something he wants this season" ?????

A misunderstanding of what he said.

It was more along the lines of "Jonathan sees that there's something Will wants, and he wants to support him."

We still didn't really see that this season, though. The closest we got to that was him recognizing what Will was saying in the van in season 4 and the conversation they have at the pizza place later.

But that scene was tacked on after the fact, like so many others involving Will, so....

I think this is the closest we ever got to a byler kiss.

For that one brief moment, Will felt on top of the world.

i hope this divorcegate stuff blows up and leigh janiak becomes super in demand. i hope her career goes crazy after this. i hope she knows that we know that she was the missing element in s5.

Soulmatism so hard they’re favorite songs are lowkey synced

Kali says that her blood isn't working, it's killing the pregnant women, because there's only one kid who's really like Henry. And she looks at El.

But 1) El doesn't actually have all the powers Henry has, 2) Henry got his powers from the Mind Flayer, 3) the only other person who's been possessed by it and connected to the Hive Mind is Will.

Throughout the season, they keep saying that Will is Vecna, we see him use his powers, see what Henry sees and even speak through him.

So, they made us think that El is the kid who's like Henry, because she has his blood, but it's actually Will, who doesn't have Henry's blood, but like him, was changed by the very source of the powers.

This is a really good point. Kali, presumably, has powers because she was infused with Henry's blood, too. So, how could El provide a different result? They never bothered to explain that beyond it just being a hunch Kali had.

Meanwhile, Will is literally said to be like Vecna, and he was infused with shadow particles, just like Henry was, and fully integrated into the hive mind, just as Henry was. But that ends up serving no purpose beyond having Will try and fail to find Henry's humanity buried inside him.

I feel like every writer was doing their own thing despite a "collaborative" process.

i think they cut out will ripping apart the mindflayer and getting covered in blood as mike watched because there's noooo way mike would see will covered in blood and not immediately fold

via @sthingsspoiler on Instagram

So many options that could have tied up a lot of the loose ends we found, but we got...that.

these two versions of mike being DAYS apart kills me like… he really does look his best when he’s embracing the things he enjoys and not putting on a front for his girlfriend

The only people who cared about the characters were their actors. The Duffers just wanted to write their depressing sci-fi coming of age story.

all roads lead to byler. and they went with the one road they could think of to not make byler canon. but that road also led to byler.

The painting never got addressed cause everytime the Duffer brothers asked ChatGPT to write the scene it ended with Will and Mike kissing

There are so many reasons to still believe that SOMETHING is up... I'm not expecting anything as I said yesterday but I can't just pretend these things are not inside the show

It is a lot to just accidentally leave there for no reason.

The Whatzit game being in both the basement and the cabin are shocking to me. It's one thing to have it at the Wheeler house already because it was already part of the set, but it was in Holly's room, I think. Maybe they also had it in the basement during the flashback, but I don't remember. But having it twice in the epilogue screams that Henry is still around. Then there's the strange coincidence of Last Crusade being on the movie marquee where the beginning and end of that movie link Indiana Jones to Henry, again making it seem like he's still lurking.

It's like they wanted to evoke a Nightmare on Elm Street ending without actually going through with one. Even then, it was too subtle to really be noticed by most people.

Maybe the set designers thought the ending wasn't really the ending, too.

The whatzit game was also specifically used for hinting. It was thrown around during Holly's attack to show that Mr Whatsit was behind it. Like Will having Henry behind his neck in season 4. It had a very specific purpose. A piece of foreshadowing like that just randomly being used in the epilogue doesn't make sense, and not in Hopper's cabin.

Plus the Indiana Jones thing in the finale is either backwards foreshadowing (which is stupid and the show has never done, not when it doesn't have any additional implications at all) to the cave plotline, or hinting at Henry's real motivations, or hinting that epilogue Hopper (Indiana Jones in s2) = Henry (Indiana Jones in s5). All scenarios do not make sense in the epilogue. Not if it's never going to be revisited.

For me it's the costumes, maybe because the costumes have always been so heavily detailed and that is true of everything but the ep 7 ESOTSM outfits and the finale. The epilogue costumes are borderline nonsensical if they don't mean everyone's in Camazotz. Like you said about the set designers, it feels like that's what the costume department believes anyway.

I think there's every reason to still believe if you want to. I feel like the main reason I don't is simply that I don't have the energy to, which I'm also highly aware is an illogical and potentially dangerous position to take. Feeling very much like Peter Parker saying, "I can't go to Germany. I got homework." The sheer level of sloppiness that would have to go into the show for all of this to happen is highly unrealistic if I think critically about it but at this point we've been knocked down like 5 times. I still believe the show's worth analysing and I still think pointing out details is fun, but nothing makes any damn sense.

Oh, I don't believe anymore. It's over.

I just find it odd that so many things point to the ending not being what it seems or Henry not actually being dead.

Why bother with all of that for nothing? Why do a Nightmare on Elm Street ending, but not really go through with it?

the abyss being full of demo creatures. will wrestles control over them from the vecna. directs them to attack the mind flayer. once the hive connection is broken from killing the mind flayer, will fake dies from the exertion of his powers and the loss of the hive connection, and loses control of the demo creatures. moment of terror for everyone as they remain awake while will is seemingly gone. but the demo creatures aren't under anyone's control anymore and are neutral. good. not aggressive, as we saw in henry's flashback in s4. they retreat, to live on in their natural habitat. will wakes up. balance is restored. will, without powers or hive connection, continues on.

If El's ending is meant to be ambiguous on purpose, why would the Duffers tell Millie what her real ending is? Isn't it just that she might be alive or might not? Did they just do it to placate her?

And to make her not tell anyone else, even her bestie Noah? Why even admit to that?

I'm convinced the Duffers are just idiots at this point who don't know when to keep their mouths shut.