Mike gets drunk, surrounding himself with childhood memories, while Will relives them by drawing Od and everything they've been through

Okay but do you all see that Mike and Will YEARN for each other? This is killing me. I'd like to think in a few years, Mike gets the courage to become Mike The Brave.

Having a queer character believe he won't find love and proving him right is not good writing.

Having a character grow up in solitary confinement and then ripping her away from the only family she's ever known to live a life of solitude once again is not good writing.

Having a character be in love with his best friend and then just compare it to a high school crush is not good writing.

Having Eleven say that Mike has always been the person who truly understood her after showing us in the previous seasons that he only sees her as a superhero IS NOT GOOD WRITING.

bad day to be a mike girl i’ll tell you that much

it’s honestly astonishing to watch men undermine the very narrative they thought they were constructing. you didn’t just miss the mark, you exposed the gap between intention and execution in real time. the backlash won’t be surprising; it’s the natural consequence of betraying the story you claimed to be telling. genuinely embarrassing work.

michael you need to lock tf in its all up to you now.

I'm sorry I'm sorry. We just had a scene where a gay character pours his heart out and leaves everything out on the table, where he is able to accept himself and finally verbalize what is his biggest secret to all of his friends and family and realize that it was never about whether or not a boy liked him back that it was always about him and have everyone embrace him in the end for being exactly who he is... and people are hating it because it maybe hints that a ship won't happen.

Look, I do understand why people are disappointed or upset, but I think people also need to look at what that entire scene was saying and not just one little detail of it.

it is so important that you are a little bit ugly. please get comfortable with having unplucked eyebrows and nonexistent jawlines and wrinkles. let your blue hair grow out into an uneven pale green and your clothes be old and mend them and modify them until they’re unique to you. wear lipstick which doesnt compliment your skintone and mismatched outfits which went out of fashion 5 years ago. be a little bit too loud and a little bit too passionate and as weird as you can be because oh my god there is nothing more disturbing to me than perfection. beauty is manufactured and sold to us and you need to realise that you are a fucking animal to live a joyful life I am so serious. you cant obsess over aesthetics forever please just live messily and make your body your home however you please.

if you dont do it for you, do it for all the teenagers who will see u in the street and know that they are not obligated to be attractive

Robin thinks Vickie is "pretty in pink"👀❤️

Okay, I know I usually yap about byler on here but I have a really cool easter egg for rovickie that I just discovered (and haven't yet seen anyone else bring up — apologies if someone already has!)

I'll start off by saying that the song Robin plays for Vickie in episode 1 is called "Pretty in Pink" by The Psychedelic Furs.

Clock the way Vickie smiles while shaking her head in this scene, as if Robin has just done or said something cheeky...

For one, Vickie clearly resembles a young Molly Ringwald who starred in the John Hughes movie of the same name (redhead with a pixie cut). Vickie's costuming also appears to be inspired by Molly Ringwald!

Secondly, "pretty in pink" is an innuendo for saying someone looks good naked. 👀

That's quite literally what it's referring to in the song.

Now, the easter egg doesn't end here. Robin plays "Pretty in Pink" for Vickie (singalling that she thinks Vickie looks good naked), before...

...telling her very directly that she wants to see Vickie naked after their date at Enzo's.

Guys... that song choice was 100% intentional.

It makes me really happy that we get carefully crafted tongue-in-cheek references like this for queer intimacy in Stranger Things.

EVERYTHING WILL IS AND THAT HE HAS EXPERIENCED MAKES HIM WHO HE IS TODAY YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THAT FROM HIS POWERS AND BEING THE SORCERER AS THAT IS WHERE IT ALL COMES FROM

For Will, accepting his queerness and embracing his desires becomes a new strategy for survival. Rather than hiding and erasing his true self, he will choose to be honest about who he is, despite the pain, fear, and uncertainty it brings. By reclaiming control over his body and mind, he weakens the Hive, which feeds on his repression. This act of self-acceptance ultimately becomes another step toward saving the world.

i could think of 100 reasons why their hair was wet in those trailers and them holding hands against a burst pipe in a bathroom they nicknamed "dick" was not one of them tbh

Will teasing Robin about her relationship with Vickie is everything. He’s so excited for her!!!

I mean... look at him!!!

He didn’t get to talk about crushes with his friends; his personal life is essentially an unspoken taboo due to all the rumors and bullying. So, when he teases her with excitement, telling her she looked like someone who knew what she’s doing, it’s so significant.

He is starving for queer connection. Even though he’s not ready to come out to her yet, he asks her questions that are dangerously close to revealing his true self. He’s aware of what people say about him and understands the implications of his curiosity, but he’s just so excited to discover he’s not alone.

He is essentially testing the waters with her while leaving room for plausible deniability. However, when she sees Will talking to Mike before the mission in the tunnels, everything becomes painfully clear. Later, she makes him feel seen and understood in such a lovely way without needing him to say a word or expose himself. Ahhhhhhhhh

will realizing that he doesn’t need mike, he wants mike, and that’s so much more beautiful. just like mike asking him to be friends was a decision, not a coincidence, a decision. will chooses to love mike.

I LOVE this because I never liked that whole thing of will needing mike and mike needing to be needed, it’s very codependent.

now mike has to understand that he doesn’t want to be needed, he wants to be seen, which is the same as being loved.

INJECT IT, BUMP IT, SNORT IT | BYLER ENDGAME

"Will doesn't have powers."

"Will is selfish."

"Will is weak."

"Will is irrelevant."

"Will's disappearance is wrong place wrong time."

"Will isn't a main character in season five."

"Will's self-acceptance isn't as important as Mike's."