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a real-life goddamn sorcerer!

@bettysgayrden / bettysgayrden.tumblr.com

L. she/her. 22. dyke.
multifandom but really this is just my place to talk about will byers.

btw in my heart will goes to pratt or the new school or sva. he studies the great gay contemporary artists like haring and warhol and mapplethorpe. his true love is painting, and he’ll have a few successful exhibitions, but he does illustrations to pay the bills. he becomes very involved in the community — act up, the nyc gay men’s chorus. maybe he tattoos for a bit, he definitely paints murals. he and jonathan become even MORE of music snobs living in the city in the 90s. they will not play about boygenius in 2023. mike first goes to indiana university for english or creative writing because he’s not ready to go too far from home, it feels like abandoning el and her memory. but he hates it, finally goes to therapy, and eventually transfers somewhere on the east coast to be closer to will and nancy. he releases a series of fantasy novels inspired by their adventures, and then something more modern gothic, because’s forever Haunted. nancy obviously becomes a crazy successful investigative journalist, eventually transfering from the herald to the globe. she adamantly does not want and never has kids. she and robin move in together after robin graduates from linguistics at smith (where she also hosted a radio show on the college station) and does her masters at boston college. then robin will travel, live in france for a while, become a professor, and is obsessed with tracy chapman and the indigo girls and kd lang and lilith fair. max and lucas move to california to be closer to max’s dad, and the milder weather is better for max’s chronic pain. maybe berkeley. lucas plays basketball in college, then eventually goes to med school. after dabbling in a lot of things — just because she’s alive and she can — max becomes a pt or an ot, inspired by her own recovery. they gave a very chic long engagement and eventually get married in the late 90s (and 2 or 3 kids in the early 2000s, after lucas is done with his residency and has become a pediatric surgeon). will & mike finally act on their feelings at the wedding. holly eventually follows max to california, she becomes an actress. dustin either goes to mit or one of the ivies. probably theoretical physics, maybe engineering. eventually works for nasa. jonathan makes all sorts of art house films, but eventually becomes a successful documentarian. he and nancy work on a project together, maybe they get back together, maybe not. he campaigns for mamdani as an almost 60 year old. erica either goes to an ivy (probably the same one as dustin, they’re bonded) or howard. she studies something in stem (yet still denies being a nerd to this day), but becomes a politician afterwards — you can’t spell america without erica is obviously her campaign slogan. steve stays in hawkins, has either 4 or 5 or 6 kids (middle names after the party, probably), keeps teaching, and lives his dream of driving around the country in his winnebago, and he stops to visit his friends in their various new homes, he’ll never have to pay for a hotel in his life. joyce and hopper join long island pflag, live long and peacefully, and treat everyone’s kids as their own grandkids. bam. the end. i understand these characters better than the duffers. thank you & goodnight.

mike saying “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” is so diabolical how the fuck did he get away with that

traumatized by this scene for the rest of my life. the fact that, at this point, will's friends have noticed that will isn't interested in girls (yet or at all, doesn't matter). the fact that it's the middle of an argument and that's the hurtful thing mike chooses to affect will. the fact that he realizes, right after he says it, the implications of that comment bc they all know that the specific thing people bully will with is being queer. will's faceeeeeeeeeeeee. his best friend and one of, like, top 3 people he trusts the most in the world (and who, at this point, he's figuring out is also his crush 😵‍💫 what a mess, good lord) is throwing against him the One thing that only hateful people in his life have used against him, And at the same time driving home the insinuation that not liking girls is seen as a problem for him. will deserves financial compensation for the emotional damage

need a character study of junior and senior year of high school will byers. he’s free from his abuser and his supernatural hivemind ties, but his sister is gone. he once had telekinetic powers, but they faded away and he’ll never be able to tell anyone about it. he’s out to his family and friends, but he’s still a gay boy in a small town in the late 80s, it’s not safe for him to live openly in public — he still doesn’t get to be free or “normal” the same way his friends do. he can’t bring a date to senior prom. he has a real dad now, but he can’t undo how lonnie effected him and how consequently complicated his relationship any father figure is. he told mike the truth, but only half of it. he’s his best friend again, but it’ll never be the same.

oh my sweet complicated boy. i love you so. (maybe i will write it myself)

beating the super dead horse here but can we talk about how el’s response to mike’s fantasies was “this isn’t like one of your campaigns” and will’s response to mike’s fantasies was to dub him The Storyteller and ask him to tell his own story, too?

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byler getting together in college and mike feeling happy and free for the first time since he was a kid. will gets an earring. mike grows his hair back out. they go to parties and kind of hate it but kind of love it. they go to gay bars and will gets hit on constantly and it pisses mike off so bad. they go on dates semi-publicly and sometimes mike gets up the courage to hold will’s hand while they’re walking down the street and sometimes they get dirty looks but they mostly get left alone at least in comparison to hawkins. they visit jonathan at nyu and all sit around chatting with mike’s legs in will’s lap and will’s hand on his thigh and jonathan just smiles and says they look good together. life is good, they’re moving forward. and then after a year or two, on a stormy night, jane hopper shows up on mike’s doorstep, soaking wet and smiling sheepishly. and the guilt that mikes been suppressing for going on three years all crashes down on him in an instant.

saying “i want him” about the character but not in a romantic or sexual way . i just Require him i need to Obtain him

i want this man in my inventory

if the duffers can just go around saying joyce and hopper realized henry was the same henry they went to school with off camera i don’t think it’s at all unrealistic for me to say mike kissed will with tongue off camera. thanks for coming to my ted talk 👍

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i was thinking about this last night so it’s not fully fleshed out but it’s bothering me that people don’t want to or cannot imagine will being more than accepting of himself and actually fully comfortable and solid with who he is and his understanding of the world. i think this can make it harder for them to envision byler. it feels like for many, that is all his love for mike relies on. i too understand what unrequited or complicated feelings can do to you in the long-run. i don’t like this when it feels like will is being held back for years into the future when we know that isn’t true because it just feels cheap. even in a situation where lines are blurred, they can still see will as pure and naive with somehow no complex thought process. there’s this loss of innocence that people subconsciously feel, and that they’re uncomfortable with in regards to will moving away and when his feelings for mike are no longer as present or as consuming and change. he will grow and that is inevitable and i think their relationship is even more interesting that way

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